author
M. Hamlin Cannon
1909–1978
Best known for Leyte: The Return to the Philippines, he brought a historian’s care and a wartime insider’s perspective to one of the Pacific campaign’s defining battles. His work also ranged into LDS and Civil War history, showing a wide curiosity about the American past.
1 Audiobook
Leyte: The Return to the Philippines
by M. Hamlin Cannon
About the author
Born in Salt Lake City on September 12, 1909, M. Hamlin Cannon was an American historian whose research moved between military history and the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Archival records from the University of Utah describe him as a military and LDS Church historian, note that he earned his Ph.D. in history from American University in 1950, and record that he married Kathleen O'Connor in 1945.
Cannon is most closely associated with Leyte: The Return to the Philippines, published in 1954 as part of the U.S. Army's official United States Army in World War II series. Contemporary book notes also say he served with the Navy in Australia and New Guinea during World War II, a background that helps explain the grounded, operational feel of his writing on the Pacific war.
His interests were never confined to one field. Sources connected with his papers and later archival descriptions say he published articles on Mormon, military, and Civil War history, including work in major scholarly journals, and that he joined the staff of the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1956, later retiring as Director of Historical Studies in 1970. He died in 1978.