- Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in biography: Peter the Great: His Life and World. (1981)
- Children: with first wife: Christopher; with second wife: Robert Susanna, Elizabeth.
- He earned a bachelor's degree in American studies from Yale University and received a Rhodes scholarship.
- His first job in journalism was doing research for political journalist Theodore H. White at Collier's magazine. He was a book reviewer for Newsweek and wrote for the Saturday Evening Post before becoming a freelance writer.
- He served in the US Navy during the Korean War.
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