The Best Of Ernie Pyles Dispatches plus Brave Men

[Fred Pillot]

Having read both of these books, are there any books about WW1 with a similar writing style by a reporter or a soldiers memoirs?
Or maybe just a recommendation.
I have heard of A Rifleman Went To War, and also a book by a sniper in WW1, but that is all.

[IditarodJoe]

Fred, have you read Ernie's other books? You might enjoy "Here Is Your War: The Story of GI Joe".

[70ish]

The Civil War was the last war that we Americans wrote about extensively. World War 1 has remained, probably our least understood war, but with the centennial of our involvement coming in just a little less than two years, that may soon change. A great deal of the first person books most commonly seen are about or by European participants - perhaps because of their exposure to the real damage, the length of time they endured and the mind numbing lists of casualties. In the grand picture, our time spent, casualties (although high to us), and material commitments were less felt, proportionately, than in smaller nations and large, especially in Russia. The war was "over there" and all of those folks felt a lot more pain.
It follows that the books on the period are very often by English, Australian and even Canadian soldiers. Axis powers, too, wrote as did sailors. The nature of the fight was the same for all sides so the imagery is horrible to all sides. I can only think of one book by a reporter and he was English. Where we first excelled in our writing is with the work of Hemingway, F.Scott Fitzgerald and others who wrote about emotions and actions, but less about history or day to day detail.
My nearest Barnes and Noble is a far distance so I can't speak of what's available on shelves at the moment, but I'm sure I would enjoy shopping. In the meantime, I use on-line searches and can usually find something. Almost any first person account is, to me, worth hearing - after all, it's a person's life story. Amazon has some inexpensive reading as well as some free things if you use e-readers. I really enjoy finding the original pieces - free from today's spin and interpretation.
Finally, library's have or can get any published material you may want. You, unfortunately, can't keep them.

[Fred Pillot]

Thanks for the replies. It makes sense that a lot of stories of ww1 should come from Europeans. My grandfather went to France in 1917. He was both a medic and courier and got to ride around on a motorcycle.
My understanding of the Civil War is that a lot of the day to day life of the soldier comes from letters home.

[M1Tommy]

This was well worth reading in my opinion, "Suddenly We Didn't Want to Die: Memoirs of a World War I Marine"
Writing and many thoughts were certainly different, "then".

http://www.amazon.com/Suddenly-We-Didnt-Want-Die/dp/0891415939


Tommy

[JBinIll]

Here's another WW1 book-Over there with O'Ryan's roughnecks; reminiscences of a private 1st class who served in the 27th U.S. Division with the British Forces in Belgium and France

http://www.amazon.com/roughnecks-reminiscences-private-Division-British/dp/B00005WJTE

and Over the Top by Guy Empey-

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Arthur_Guy_Empey/Over_The_Top/

[Greg]

While not about WWI, but contemporary with Ernie Pyle's books, I recommend Up Front by Bill Mauldin. He was a cartoonist in WWII, and I found the book really, really good.