Gwynne was born in
Worcester, Massachusetts, to Sam Gwynne Jr., He also has a master's degree in writing from
Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded a graduate fellowship and studied under novelist John Barth. His journalism has appeared in the
New York Times, ''Harper's, Los Angeles Times, Outside Magazine, Dallas Morning News, California Magazine
, and the Wall Street Journal,
among others.
His New York Times
Bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon
(2010) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the General Nonfiction category and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. On October 5, 2024, the Comanche Nation passed a resolution denouncing the book. His book Rebel Yell
, a biography of Stonewall Jackson – also a New York Times
Bestseller – was a finalist for the PEN Award for Literary Biography and for the National Book Critics Circle Award in history. He is also the author of The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football
(2016), and, most recently, Hymns of the Republic: the Story of The Final Year of the American Civil War
(2019).
His newest book, His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine'', was released on May 2, 2023. ==Works==