Joseph Edward Persico was born in Gloversville, New York on July 19, 1930 to Thomas Persico and Bianca Perrone. In 1952 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Political Science from the New York State College for Teachers. Following graduation, he joined the U.S. Navy where he served as a Lieutenant aboard a minesweeper and also worked at NATO Headquarters Naples, Italy.
Political career
After three years, he left the Navy and joined Governor W. Averell Harriman as a writer and researcher. In 1960, Persico joined the United States Information Agency working in Argentina, Brazil, and Washington as a Foreign Service Officer. From 1963 until 1966, he served as Executive Assistant to the New York State Health Commissioner and in 1966 became the chief speechwriter for then Governor of New York Nelson A. Rockefeller. He remained Rockefeller's primary speechwriter throughout the latter's Vice Presidency. Persico was nominated as a commissioner to the American Battle Monuments Commission by then Secretary of StateColin Powell. In this capacity he contributed to the design of the World War II Memorial located at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., writing the words of the poem carved into the message stone located at the eastern entrance of the memorial as well as appearing on the 'Freedom Wall' on the Western edge of the memorial.
Author
In 1977, following the end of Rockefeller's tenure, Persico published My Enemy My Brother: Men and Days of Gettysburg, an historical work of non fiction covering the American Civil War. In 1979, he published a novel, The Spiderweb, and a further nonfiction study, Piercing the Reich: The Penetration of Nazi Germany by American Secret Agents During World War II. Three years later he produced The Imperial Rockefeller, a biography of his former employer. This was followed by a biography of Edward R. Murrow. In 1995, he co-wrote Colin L. Powell's autobiography My American Journey. Throughout the 1990s, Persico continued to produce historical books as well as numerous articles on American history. In November 2001, he published Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage and in 2004, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918, World War I and Its Violent Climax. In May 2013, he published his last book, Roosevelt's Centurions, through Random House.
