Ernie's War: The Best of Ernie Pyle's World War II Dispatches

In World War II, correspondent Ernie Pyle won worldwide acclaim for syndicated columns he wrote almost daily with simplicity and an eye for emotional detail while sharing in the life of front-line soldiers he once described as ""destined merely by chance to suffer and die for the rest of us.'' Compiled here are columns from battle zones in North Africa, Italy, England, France and Okinawa, telling how American foot-slogging GIs and those of other military branches endured cold, filth, exhaustion, fear, sickness, wounds and death all around them with persistence, inventiveness and even humor. A Pyle column on the death in Italy of an infantry captain much revered by his men inspired a motion picture, The Story of GI Joe. Nichols has edited the work selectively, with comments linking events and a sketch of Pyle's rather unhappy personal life. The columnist was killed by a Japanese sniper on a Pacific island as the war neared its end. (September 8)