When a machine-gun bullet ended the life of war correspondent Ernie Pyle in the final days of World War II, Americans mourned him in the same breath as they mourned Franklin Roosevelt. To millions, the loss of this American folk hero seemed nearly as great as the loss of the wartime president. If the hidden horrors and valor of combat persist at all in the public mind, it is because of those writers who watched it and recorded it in the faith that war is too important to be confined to the private memories of the warriors ...
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When a machine-gun bullet ended the life of war correspondent Ernie Pyle in the final days of World War II, Americans mourned him in the same breath as they mourned Franklin Roosevelt. To millions, the loss of this American folk hero seemed nearly as great as the loss of the wartime president. If the hidden horrors and valor of combat persist at all in the public mind, it is because of those writers who watched it and recorded it in the faith that war is too important to be confined to the private memories of the warriors. Above all these writers, Ernie Pyle towered as a giant. Through his words and his compassion, Americans everywhere gleaned their understanding of what they came to call "The Good War." Pyle walked a troubled path to fame. Though insecure and anxious, he created a carefree and kindly public image in his popular prewar column--all the while struggling with inner demons and a tortured marriage. War, in fact, offered Pyle an escape hatch from his own personal hell. It also offered him a subject precisely suited to his talent--a shrewd understanding of human nature, an unmatched eye for detail, a profound capacity to identify with the suffering soldiers whom he adopted as his own, and a plain yet poetic style reminiscent of Mark Twain and Will Rogers. These he brought to bear on the Battle of Britain and all the great American campaigns of the war--North Africa, Sicily, Italy, D-Day and Normandy, the liberation of Paris, and finally Okinawa, where he felt compelled to go because of his enormous public stature despite premonitions of death. In this immensely engrossing biography, affectionate yet critical, journalist and historian James Tobin does an Ernie Pyle job on Ernie Pyle, evoking perfectly the life and labors of this strange, frail, bald little man whose love/hate relationship to war mirrors our own. Based on dozens of interviews and copious research in little-known archives, Ernie Pyle's War is a self-effacing tour de force. To read it is to know Ernie Pyle, and most of all, to know his war.
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Add this copy of Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II to cart. $1.52, good condition, Sold by Zoom Books Company rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lynden, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by Free Press.
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Good. A well-loved companion. Corners and cover might show a little wear and you could find some notes or highlights. The dust jacket might be MIA it might have been a library book and extras aren't guaranteed-but the story's all there!
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Add this copy of Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II to cart. $2.48, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by Free Press.
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The author, James Tobin, and World War Two correspondent Ernie Pyle are a perfect combination. The popularity of Pyle's columns during the war was largely due to his ability to convey to readers the reality of war as lived, fought and died, by the "dogfaces" the men on or near the front lines. This reality returns in this really excellent book written by an author who clearly appreciates Pyle's style. Though I was only about ten years old during the era of Pyle's popularity, I too read and appreciated his columns and books. To read this book is to relive that era. For anyone who has an interest in how war is realy fought, especially World War Two, by the soldiers who fought it (as opposed to the officers who strategised it) this book is highly recommended.
