James Thomas Flexner
Born	(1908-01-13)January 13, 1908 Manhattan,New York,New York
Died	February 13, 2003(2003-02-13) (aged 95) New York City
Occupation	Writer
Alma mater	Harvard University
Period	1937–1996
Genre	History, biography
Spouse	Beatrice Hudson Flexner
Children	1
Parents	Simon Flexner

James Thomas Flexner (January 13, 1908 – February 13, 2003) was an Americanhistorian and biographer best known for the four-volume biography ofGeorge Washington that earned him aNational Book Awardin Biography^[1] and a specialPulitzer Prize.^[2][3] His one-volume abridgment,Washington: the Indispensable Man (1974) was the basis of two television miniseries,George Washington (1984) andGeorge Washington II: The Forging of a Nation (1986), starringBarry Bostwick as Washington.^[3][4]

James Thomas Flexner was born January 13, 1908, inManhattan. His father wasSimon Flexner, a sixth-grade dropout who became a self-taught microbiologist, pathologist, director of theRockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City and discoverer of a cure forspinal meningitis. His mother wasHelen Thomas [Flexner], a professor of English atBryn Mawr whose sister was president of the college.^[3][5] In 1929, Flexner graduatedcum laude fromHarvard University, and found work as a reporter for theNew York Herald Tribune. In 1931, he took a position at theNew York City Department of Health as an executive secretary. The following year, he left his job to devote his full energies to writing. Although untrained inart history, he gravitated to art subjects as part of his interest in writing about American history.^[5]

Flexner is known best forGeorge Washington, a four-volume biography published byLittle, Brown from 1965 to 1972. He won aspecial Pulitzer Prize for the work in 1973.^[2] He wrote other historical biographies, includingThe Young Hamilton (onAlexander Hamilton),Mohawk Baronet (onSir William Johnson, 1st Baronet), andThe Traitor and the Spy:Benedict Arnold andJohn André. He wrote many books on the history of American art, including a highly regarded life of the American painterJohn Singleton Copley. He and his father, Simon Flexner, M.D., co-wroteWilliam Henry Welch and the Heroic Age of American Medicine (1941). (His uncle, Abraham Flexner, was the educator whose 1910 report led to the reform of United States medical schools.)

Flexner died February 13, 2003, at his apartment in New York City at the age of 95.^[3]

1. A Short History of American Painting. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1950.
2. America's Old Masters: First Artists of the New World. New York: The Viking Press, 1939.
3. An American Saga: The Story of Helen Thomas and Simon Flexner. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1984.
4. Asher B. Durand: An Engraver's and a Farmer's Art. Yonkers: The Hudson River Museum, 1983.
5. Doctors on Horseback: Pioneers of American Medicine. New York: Viking Press, 1937.
6. George Washington, the Forge of Experience, 1732–1775. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1965.
7. George Washington in the American Revolution, 1775–1783. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1968.
8. George Washington and the New Nation, 1783–1793. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1970.
9. George Washington, Anguish and Farewell, 1793–1799. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972.
10. Gilbert Stuart; a Great Life in Brief New York: Knopf, 1955.
11. History of American Painting Volume 1: First Flowers of Our Wilderness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1947.
12. History of American Painting Volume 2: The Light of Distant Skies, 1760–1835. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1954.
13. History of American Painting Volume 3: That Wilder Image; the Painting of America's Native School. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962.
14. John Singleton Copley. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1948.
15. Lord of the Mohawks A Biography of Sir William Johnson. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1984.
16. Maverick's Progress: An Autobiography. New York: Fordham University Press, 1996.
17. Nineteenth Century American Painting. New York: Putnam, 1970.
18. Paintings on the Century's Walls. New York:Century Association, 1963.
19. Random Harvest. New York: Fordham University Press, 1998.
20. States Dyckman: American Loyalist. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980.
21. Steamboats Come True: American Inventors in Action. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978.
22. The Double Adventure of John Singleton Copley. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969.
23. The Face of Liberty: Founders of the United States. Clarkson N. Potter, 1975.
24. The Pocket History of American Painting. Pocket Library, 1957.
25. The Traitor and the Spy: Benedict Arnold and John Andre. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1953.
26. The World of Winslow Homer 1836–1910. New York: Time, Inc., 1966.
27. The Young Hamilton: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978.
28. Time-Life Library of Art: The World of Winslow Homer. New York: Time-Life Books, 1980.
29. Washington: the Indispensable Man. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1974.^[5][6]

• Abraham Flexner (1866–1959), American educator
• Charles Flexner (born 1956), American physician, clinical pharmaceutical scientist, academic, author and researcher
• Simon Flexner (1863–1946), physician, scientist, administrator, and professor

• Works by or about James Thomas Flexner at theInternet Archive
• Interview aboutMaverick's Progress: An Autobiography,Booknotes, June 2, 1996
• James Thomas Flexner atLibrary of Congress, with 57 library catalog records
• James Thomas Flexner Papers at theNew-York Historical Society.

• 1908 births
• 2003 deaths
• American art historians
• 20th-century American historians
• American male non-fiction writers
• 20th-century American journalists
• 20th-century American male writers
• 20th-century American biographers
• Writers from Manhattan
• American people of German-Jewish descent
• Harvard University alumni
• Historians of the United States
• Jewish American historians
• Journalists from New York City
• American male biographers
• National Book Award winners
• New York Herald Tribune people
• Pulitzer Prize winners
• 20th-century American Jews
• 21st-century American Jews
• Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 20th-century American male journalists

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from April 2014
• Articles with Internet Archive links