About this item
A beautiful reckoning with the life and work of the legendary journalist Ernie Pyle, who gave World War II a human face for millions of Americans even as he wrestled with his own demonsAt the height of his fame and influence during World War II, Ernie Pyle's nationally syndicated dispatches from combat zones shaped America's understanding of what the war felt like to ordinary soldiers, as no writer's work has before or since. From North Africa to Sicily, from the Apennines to Normandy Beach and Paris, and on to the war in the Pacific, where he would meet his end, Ernie Pyle had a genius for connecting with the full gamut of emotions his beloved dogfaced grunts were feeling. A humble man, himself plagued by melancholy and tortured by marriage to a partner whose mental health struggles were much more acute than his own, Pyle was in touch with suffering in a way that left an indelible mark on his readers.
About the Author
David Chrisinger is the executive director of the Public Policy Writing Workshop at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy and the director of writing seminars for The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting on the human impact of military service. He is the author of several books, including "The Soldier's Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II, "Stories Are What Save Us: A Survivor's Guide to Writing about Trauma," and "Public Policy Writing That Matters," which in 2022 received the National Council of Teachers of English George Orwell Award.
