About this item
In March 1941, Jimmy Stewart, America's boy next door and recent Academy Award winner, left fame and fortune behind and joined the United States Army Air Corps to fulfill his family mission and serve his country. He rose from private to colonel and participated in 20 often-brutal World War II combat missions over Germany and France. In mere months the war took away his boyish looks as he faced near-death experiences and the loss of men under his command. The war finally won, he returned home with millions of other veterans to face an uncertain future, suffering what we now know as PTSD. Younger stars like Gregory Peck were now getting roles that might have been Stewart's, and he didn't know if he would ever work in Hollywood again. Then came It's a Wonderful Life. For the next half century, Stewart refused to discuss his combat experiences and took the story of his service to the grave. Mission presents the first in-depth look at Stewart's life as a Squadron Commander in the skies over Germany, and, his return to Hollywood the changed man who embarked on production of America's most beloved holiday classic. Author Robert Matzen sifted through thousands of Air Force combat reports and the Stewart personnel files; interviewed surviving aviators who flew with Stewart; visited the James Stewart Papers at Brigham Young University; flew in the cockpits of the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator; and walked the earth of air bases in England used by Stewart in his combat missions of 1943-45. What emerges in Mission is the story of a Jimmy Stewart you never knew until now, a story more fantastic than any he brought to the screen.
About the Author
Robert Matzen is an American author who specializes in Hollywood history and World War II, combining meticulous research with spellbinding narrative. His ninth book, "Warrior: Audrey Hepburn," was written in collaboration with Hepburn's son Luca Dotti. "Warrior" complements "Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn in World War II" and captures a fearless woman who turned experiences learned as a teenaged Resistance fighter in the Netherlands into a quest to "give voice to the voiceless" as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in war zones on multiple continents. His previous books include "Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe," which shot to bestseller status during the 2016 holiday season and continues to earn media coverage, including national television appearances and an essay by Robert in the Wall Street Journal.Matzen leveraged his 10 years working at NASA Headquarters in aeronautics communications for his sixth book, "Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3," which rose to #2 on the Amazon bestseller list for Biography, earned praise from the Smithsonian, and won the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Award for Biography. With every book, Matzen gets personal with history. For "Dutch Girl" this meant spending weeks in the Netherlands talking to the people who lived through the war with Audrey Hepburn. For "Mission" he flew in B-17 and B-24 bombers and walked the muddy fields of Jimmy Stewart's base at Tibenham, England. And for "Fireball," he famously climbed a mountain--Mount Potosi, Nevada--to explore the wreckage of TWA Flight 3.
