WRITER

William L. Shirer

1904 - 1993

Photo of William L. Shirer

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William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian. His The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany, has been read by many and cited in scholarly works for more than 60 years; its 50th anniversary was marked by a new edition of the book. As a young man just out of college, in 1925 Shirer was hired by the Chicago Tribune and later worked for the International News Service; he was the first reporter hired by Edward R. Murrow for what became a CBS radio team of journalists known as "Murrow's Boys". Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William L. Shirer has received more than 890,762 page views. His biography is available in 33 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 31 in 2019). William L. Shirer is the 2,849th most popular writer (down from 2,397th in 2019), the 3,607th most popular biography from United States (down from 3,098th in 2019) and the 310th most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 890k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 53.37

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 33

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.59

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.04

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, William L. Shirer ranks 2,849 out of 7,302. Before him are Saken Seifullin, Ango Sakaguchi, Farag Foda, Song Yingxing, Guiraut Riquier, and Peter Wessel Zapffe. After him are Heinrich Vogeler, Mahasweta Devi, Phlegon of Tralles, Aleksander Fredro, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, and Irvine Welsh.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1904, William L. Shirer ranks 147. Before him are Frederick Ashton, Goffredo Petrassi, Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, Sergei Yutkevich, Pyotr Koshevoy, and Aparicio Méndez. After him are Lin Huiyin, Emilio Recoba, Chen Boda, Joseph Schmidt, Heinrich von Brentano, and Antoun Saadeh. Among people deceased in 1993, William L. Shirer ranks 108. Before him are Pierre Victor Auger, Guido Masetti, Chishū Ryū, John Tuzo Wilson, Henry Hazlitt, and Clarence Zener. After him are Jan Gies, Elvira Popescu, Sebastiano Baggio, Elmar Klos, William Berger, and Anšlavs Eglītis.

Others Born in 1904

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Others Deceased in 1993

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In United States

Among people born in United States, William L. Shirer ranks 3,607 out of 20,380. Before him are George Speck (1824), Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (1981), Sixto Durán Ballén (1921), Jerry Buss (1933), Kathy Baker (1950), and Geoffrey Lewis (1935). After him are Charles Evans Hughes (1862), Kevin Sorbo (1958), Dick Wolf (1946), Ethan Suplee (1976), Christopher C. Kraft Jr. (1924), and Martha Chase (1927).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, William L. Shirer ranks 310. Before him are John Zerzan (1943), Varian Fry (1907), Larry Niven (1938), Carl Sandburg (1878), R. A. Salvatore (1959), and Ben Hecht (1893). After him are Anne McCaffrey (1926), Maurice Sendak (1928), Jonathan Franzen (1959), Jack Williamson (1908), Robert Penn Warren (1905), and Lucia Berlin (1936).

American born Writers

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