page_title: William L. Laurence
hierarchical_section_title: William L. Laurence
context_page_description: William Leonard Laurence was a Lithuanian-born American Jewish journalist known for his science journalism writing of the 1940s and 1950s while working for The New York Times. He won two Pulitzer Prizes and, as the official historian of the Manhattan Project, was the only journalist to witness the Trinity test and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He is credited with coining the iconic term "Atomic Age" which became popular in the 1950s. He is also one of the first ones to have compared the atomic bomb to a monster which may have influenced movies such as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Godzilla: "It kept struggling in an elemental fury, like a creature in act of breaking the bonds that held it down" and "a monstrous prehistoric creature".
context_section_description: William Leonard Laurence (March 7, 1888 – March 19, 1977) was a Lithuanian-born American Jewish journalist known for his science journalism writing of the 1940s and 1950s while working for The New York Times. He won two Pulitzer Prizes and, as the official historian of the Manhattan Project, was the only journalist to witness the Trinity test and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He is credited with coining the iconic term "Atomic Age" which became popular in the 1950s. He is also one of the first ones to have compared the atomic bomb to a monster which may have influenced movies such as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Godzilla: "It kept struggling in an elemental fury, like a creature in act of breaking the bonds that held it down" and "a monstrous prehistoric creature".
caption: Laurence on the island of Tinian before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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