​Personal letters and journals are critical to writing nonfiction historical accounts and historical novels.  Plot lines in my novel, Yours in a Hurry, advance through letters shared among the main characters.  Readers ask if they are actual letters or fictional.  Spoiler alert:  Only the one written by Addison the day before his death is an actual letter, which survives because Mr. Davis to whom he wrote it back home shared it with the local newspaper at the time.

Windows to the Past
A current project with the working title Little Diamonds is set in the period immediately following WWI.  I needed detailed descriptions of a soldier on the front in France for two of the characters.  Although I read extensively and had visited some WWI battlefields during our World War II tour of Europe (see also the categories list at the left for additional WWI stories), I must single out one book, Hell’s Observers, as especially helpful.  The well reproduced journal, which I found at an antique show, of William J. Graham of the American Expeditionary Force provided not only the information I needed, but the extensive WWI photograph collection of one of the authors, Bruce A. Jarvis, greatly enhances the story’s locations and characters.

Now I’m reflecting on my father’s WWII letters to my mother, his then-fiancé. It’s so emotional to read ancestors’ words when they were young and had their lives before them.  We know how things turned out, but back then the letters were about mundane daily happenings at camp or what was happening back home in Marion, Ohio.  I often wonder if that’s on purpose, to take their minds off of the terrible possibilities facing them.

A typical letter from my father provides an example.  He is a clerk and driver of materials to Post Exchanges (referred to as a PX) down South at the time. The men in mom and dad’s families were all employed by the railroad, and mom loved writing letters and collecting pens, so he engages her in a discussion of both in this letter from January 1944.
​
“…In the Jan 15 post magazine there is an article on an army railroad.  You should read it.  This railroad runs from Camp Polk to Camp Claiborne, La.  I go to both camps often and see the railroad.  It tells pretty well what these swamps are like.  Wild hogs come around the mess kitchens.  I’ve seen twenty at a time at ours.  They always dig pits for garbage and about every day someone has to help a hog out of the pit they go in for a meal and can’t climb out…
…Yesterday I got an Eversharp pen…Has the solid gold head on it, you’ve seen them.  …losing a pen every time I turn around but going to keep track of this one.  Maybe.  The one of yours has paid for itself a thousand times any way if it does stop now.  This pen isn’t as good as the Parker I had.  Maybe all right after I use it a while.  This pen sells for 10.00 cost 5.50 in the PX.  Everything is cheaper.  That identification of yours is from the PX even, six dollars but I think it is good silver…” 
​
Later in the war, the topics changed to concerns about how many “points” were needed to get into the queue to go home.

​Selective Memories
Some veterans published their stories.  Poignant examples are memoirs With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge and Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie.  Both contributed to the miniseries The Pacific, which has given me insights to the dynamics of the American and Japanese conflict in which my dad participated.

Other children and grandchildren of WWII veterans are following the same journey as me, and some are publishing their letters and journals.  If you’d like to see two recent examples, Michele Makros and Kara Martinelli have written books based on their father’s and grandfather’s service, respectively.  I met Kara several years ago at an author talk and signing for her book, My Very Dearest Anna: My Grandparents’ Letters From WWII.  She encouraged me to do something with my dad’s letters even though most, especially early in the war, are so highly censored that they provide little information other than where he was stationed.

Michele’s recent book, Love Letters from the Marine Wolf, is visually beautiful and includes details of her family’s war time home life in addition to her father’s service as a member of the Army Transportation Corps in WWII.  She also met with many of his surviving shipmates and includes their stories as well.  Michele introduced me to the Center of American War Letters, where one can download letters and photos that families have submitted.
​
Did anyone in your family leave a journal or letters that give you insight to their life that you might not have otherwise had?  If so, I and other readers would love to hear about them. You can respond on this web page or by email at ann@ann-otto.com.

​I originally wrote academic and professional articles—obviously nonfiction, but had to study the craft of writing fiction for my debut novel, Yours in a Hurry. I’m returning to nonfiction, but with a different purpose: informational biography based on my father’s World War 2 (WW2) letters to his then fiance, later my mother. I want to tell his story in the context of the history and culture of the time including the many locations he visited from the deep American south to the jungles of Burma and the cities and Himalayan region of India.

How does a writer go about planning a project like this?

First find a resource to guide you. I found that Elizabeth Lyon’s well organized A Writer’s Guide to Nonfiction covers every topic necessary.  I’m planning the following steps, possibly not in this order, and sometimes backtracking along the way.

• Articulate the book’s purpose and refine your ideas. Lyon walks you through the process. Examples of some considerations in my case: Do I only want to describe and expand on the facts—history, locations, situations—from the letters, or do I want to add human interest aspects: How did dad’s experiences change my parent’s lives during and after the war; What was life like back home?; Do I elaborate on wartime issues shared by thousands of others? Was WW2 a different war in some ways, as Tom Brokaw posits in The Greatest Generation, because of the specific situations they faced or the character of the men and women involved? A narrator in Ken Burns’ film series, The War, reads soldiers' wartime letters home. The letters have some of the same wording as my father’s.  

 

• Write a synopsis for a proposal based on decisions from the first bullet point.

 

• Select a working title. I’d been referring to this work as Letters from the Front. But that’s been used before in a variety of ways. From Middle America to Mytikyina: A WW2 Soldier’s Story would be more descriptive. But this may be revised. As I work through the rest of the process better options may come to light.

 

• Collect what original material you have. In my case, this includes my father’s letters and photos; collateral material in a box that my mother kept including brochures and news articles about the war and places dad served; and badges, patches, and medals he received. Fortunately, he kept many pieces of paper he received while in the service, including small documents for one-day leaves.

 

• Create a bibliography for research. Our family visits many museums, historical societies, book sales, and antique and military history events. Anticipating visiting my topic I’ve searched for books, magazines and other material related to the letters which gives me the beginning of a bibliography. But there’s more out there which leads to the next point.

 

• Identify comparison books using Amazon, my library, and a web search for other pertinent books and articles. There are many out there about the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater in WW2 and the MARS Taskforce in which my father served. This also requires finding reviews of these sources that more fully describe what each book covers to determine if it really is a match. Later in a full proposal I’ll need to convince readers why this book will be different, better received or otherwise worthy of consideration amid the competition.

 

• Organize your thoughts and method for writing. Will I use an outline or other method? Some use computer spreadsheets. Others prefer to draft chronologically. Regardless, flexibility is important.

 

• How will you document your research—cards, notebooks, computer software? I begin with a basic outline. I keep a notebook with pages for each source I use, recording the book page number of each written comment as I take notes. I have a knack for remembering exactly where I wrote something and what source it is from. This helped greatly when writing my historical novel and an aviation expert reader of mine questioned one of my passages. It was satisfying when he said, “I learn something every day.”

 

• Determine your audience. Writer’s need to answer the question, “Why Should I buy your book?” In this case, potential readers include those interested in history in general or, more specifically, military history or that of the United States during the mid-twentieth century, or veterans of any war and their families since themes relating to them are eternal. Some readers like biographies in any category.

 

• Who will you share your proposal with? Once you feel confident in your knowledge and approach to the work, identify individuals who can provide an opinion regarding interest in the topic and whether the book is worth pursuing.  Who might be able to provide suggestions on improving the proposal?  My plan for development includes getting input from both CBI veterans and a specialist on Asian history. The list of possible contacts includes local veteran’s groups; a professor of Asian history; several university presses; and, several museums and historical societies specializing in WW2 or locations at which dad served. This process worked well when researching Yours in a Hurry and led to much additional information.

 

• Dilemma: Does a writer have to personally see locations they are describing for them to be real for the reader? Some writers suggest that it adds to the richness of the telling. I’ve even discussed the importance of place as a character in the novel. These WW2 letters include locations in America’s deep south, India, Burma, rest camps high in the Himalayas, trips around the Cape of Africa and through the Suez canal. Many of these trips would be time and cost prohibitive for a book of this scope. I’m reassured by an author talk given by Paula McLain who authored The Paris Wife and other best-selling historical novels which depict foreign locations. When asked if she visited these places prior to writing the books, she said no. She wrote the books and imagined the locations sitting in her writing office—a coffee house near her home. Few would say that this detracted from her excellent results.

Doing the Work
Wiktionary now defines the  ‘yellow brick road’ of Wizard of Oz fame as a proverbial path to a Promised Land of one's hopes and dreams. The prospect of starting on a ‘yellow brick road’ toward this finished product is both exhilarating and overwhelming. I’m not a full-time writer. But the love of history and sharing these stories to introduce readers to a less familiar era is worth the effort.

Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohioans relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kindle. Her academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry and her current projects, which include a novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s and a compilation of her father’s World War 2 letters. She blogs about history and writing and can be reached through the website, https://www.ann-otto.com/ , or at Facebook@Annottoauthor and www.Goodreads.com. 

​For some time I’ve been researching and writing about Southeast Ohio’s Appalachian Little Cities of Black Diamonds. A novel about the cultural changes and conflicts occurring there in the 1920s interests me, especially my father’s oral history of life in small towns.

But 32,505 words into the novel I’m putting it aside as writers sometimes need to: too many characters; too many plot lines. I’ll return to it, but after clearing my mind to get a new perspective.
​
I’ve also been unsuccessful in getting others interested in the project. I was fortunate to have many interested individuals and organizations from around the country when writing  Yours in a Hurry. Of course, that has famous historical characters and events along popular cultural themes. The Little Cities area is challenged now, and history isn’t their focus. They’re working on renewal and development, and there’s only so much individual energy for large or small endeavors.

​Letters From the Front: World War 2
Another reason for the decision is that I feel I’m losing time on another work I’d like to complete. My father wrote to my mother nearly every day during WW2, the only exception being during the months of the major battle in Myitkyina, Burma in 1944. Mom went from girlfriend to fiancé during the war. The highly censored letters tell of routine state-side driving and materials work in several camps in Southern states to later more dangerous service in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater in the MARS Task Force and afterwards. 

​For instance, in the fall of 1945 as he awaited being listed to ship home to the United States, he and the others were barred from going into Calcutta after an American service man driving an ambulance was caught in the riots surrounding the upcoming religiously contested Indian elections. The driver was burned in the ambulance, and you can tell by dad’s letter that it greatly affected him. You can learn more about my father, Olaf (aka O.I., Curly, or Tom) Darnell at https://www.ann-otto.com/blog/little-cities-of-the-black-diamond-memoir. 

​A Passion for Sharing History
I invite you to continue following these posts that cover history and writing. If you want to know more about my writing strategy, see a recent interview at https://www.nfreads.com/interview-with-author-ann-kathleen-otto/.
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If you’re a writer or author of 20th-century history please send me examples of your work if you'd like to be a guest on the blog. Or, maybe you're a reader with a historical memory you’d like to share on this site. If so, please share. If you see information in this or previous posts that interest you, or of which you have first-hand knowledge, please let me know. Examples of past guest blog posts on this site include the aviator ancestor of a local librarian (https://www.ann-otto.com/blog/early-aviator-frank-j-terrill) and stories around Hungarian history in Northeast Ohio from an immigrant family (https://www.ann-otto.com/blog/ohio-hungarian-heritage-part-1 and https://www.ann-otto.com/blog/escape-to-america). I love sharing a passion for history.

​Next time: Researching and Writing a True Story

​Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohioans relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kindle. Her academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry and her current projects, which include a novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s and a compilation of her father’s World War 2 letters. She blogs about history and writing and can be reached through the website, https://www.ann-otto.com/ , or at Facebook@Annottoauthor and www.Goodreads.com. 

​I just returned from my first visit to Japan. It’s been 110 years since my grandfather Thomas Purl Hartle served in the Pacific with the army. The life-long devotee to Teddy Roosevelt helped build harbors in Corregidor, the Philippines, and Hawaii and visited Yokohama and Tokyo in Japan. 

​Interesting photos in the Edo-Tokyo Museum showed crowded 1910 streets that he’d walked. It’s hard to imagine that he’d had these experiences and then went home to small towns in Ohio that he never left again except for a couple of visits to his sister Anna in San Antonio, Texas.

​Here’s an excerpt from Purl’s travels in the Philippines from Yours in a Hurry.
 ​

​      Purl guessed right. The topographical survey in some ways wasn't a lucky assignment. Transport was difficult and uncomfortable. Ponies and caribou couldn't be used through mountains, jungle, and across ravines, so a contingent of native porters pulled large boxes containing their equipment and provisions.
      One night an officer found an abandoned shack with some supplies. Purl and the other soldiers sat and rested after the day's march. Purl decided to take out his pen and share some experiences with Anna.
 
Philippines
February 3, 1909
 
Dear Anna,
 
      I was selected to assist in documenting our survey, so thought I would describe our experiences for you to share.
       Our party is divided into three sections, each with one commissioned officer, eight enlisted men, and four porters. We are provided provisions for two weeks, the time needed to complete the survey of our assigned territory.
      We went to the province of Bulacan. The route is through many barrios. Due to the heat, we bivouacked under roof instead of on the ground when possible. We once slept in an old native house of worship in Buena Vista and woke to church bells and chants by native Tagalogs who are now Catholic.
      We left through the Marquina Valley—large forests of bamboo, ebony, and bush-like trees filled with tropical fruits and vegetables, and a strong cinnamon smell. I can see why Spain fought so hard to keep this land.
In the dense forest of the San Madre Mountains, we saw many monkeys and parrots and stopped to trade for food.  I wish you could have seen the Albinos in northern Luzon—an entire colony who inherit the trait. They are shy and shield themselves from the sun with a fan of palm leaf. We passed a village of Igorrote head hunters—a wild tribe of the North who eat dog and grasshopper pies.
      As we begin our last few days, cholera and smallpox are reported throughout Luzon. It is against the law to drink un-boiled water, and we follow the rule as best we can out here.
      Much more to tell, but Robbie says that we need to fix camp as a storm may be coming.
Your brother
​
       After finishing his letter, Purl walked out to where Robbie was standing. "Sarge says it may be a typhoon," Robbie said. "He hasn't been through one before, but some of the other men have."
      Purl squinted upward and assessed the darkening sky. "I'll give it at least an hour before we know for sure. I best be getting a shave in. It could be a long day or two."
      "You are the only man I know who can't be with a bristle of hair on your face!"
      "It's the light complexion—looks poorly with hair."
      The troops did what they could to make a meal of the brown and somewhat mushy produce they found in the shack by combining it with their tins of meat. Purl had just finished eating and stretched out on his blanket on the floor when a loud wind whistled through the palms.
      The shack trembled as though it would fall down around him. Purl heard thunder from far away. Flashes of lightening hit the ground as the storm approached. Each flash lit the dark room, and he could see Robbie cringing on the floor nearby.
      "That one was close. I don't remember storms this fierce in West Virginia!" Robbie said.
      After another loud clap of thunder the wind caused the palms to sway more erratically. "If this is a typhoon, you can be sure it's nothing like back home."
      The maelstrom continued until daylight. When they awoke, empty sacks of chewing tobacco lay scattered on the shack floor. "A lot were sure scared!" Robbie said, assessing the debris.
      "I went through one of those pouches myself." Purl replied. "When I wasn't worried, I was bored—couldn't sleep."
      They pieced together a quick breakfast of bread and fruit. The lieutenant came into the shack, wet and with muddy boots. "I don't think the rain is going to stop. We may as well get going. Pack up."
      The rain continued until midafternoon. They stepped carefully across the desolated landscape through deep gullies worn in the soil, avoiding flooded streams. Purl, one of the tallest, often had to stoop to avoid drooping palms.
      Then the sun began to blaze. Starting down the trail, they passed a Filipino carrying a load of sugar cane. Robbie said, "I'm going to go ask that native about the shack we stayed in last night. I still don't understand why it was vacant with all those supplies."
      He motioned to the Filipino translator. "Ask that man if he knows why no one is living in the shack on the hill with all the provisions. It appears they just up and left."
      The translator spoke to the man, returned, and without emotion, reported to Robbie, "No one will live there. All of the family died of the cholera."
Purl watched as Robbie ran to the lieutenant and with heavy breathing asked,         "Do we have anything to take for the cholera? Everyone in that shack died and now we're all going to be sick!"
       The lieutenant replied calmly, "Don't worry, White. I think we would know by now if we were contaminated. There's no delay in the action of that germ."
      One of the men standing next to Purl had eaten a significant amount of fruit in the shack. He turned pale, sat on the ground, put his head in his hands, and said, "We're all going to die!"
      The young lieutenant shook his head and helped the man up. "Come on, soldier, let's pick up the pace and get back to camp."
      They returned the next day. "It's good to be back at headquarters." Robbie said. "Good food, showers, cards, and music. Who could ask for more? And no one died of the cholera!" he added with mock seriousness.
      Purl chuckled, thinking of the anxiety some of them showed on the trail. "No, but some were near scared to death.” He was quiet for a moment. "A visit home sure wouldn't be bad. I'd like to see my family. And until we leave Manila, construction on the Corregidor emplacements will be harder work."
        Robbie yawned. "Well, right now I'm going to fall into bed."
       "See you in the morning."

Next time: The importance of ‘place’ in a novel: Little Cities of the Black Diamonds
Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohioans relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s and prepared for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. 
 

​A recent Public Broadcasting Service telecast, Letters from Bagdad, reminds us of another woman who had a great influence during World War (WWI), Gertrude Bell. Her sphere of influence was in the Eastern Front. Her path often crossed with Englishmen T.E. Lawrence, better know as Lawrence of Arabia, and Winston Churchill.  

​Beginnings
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born in1868, and by the time of her death in 1926, she would be known among other things as an English writer, scholar, historian, archeologist, linguist, and political officer. 
Her mother died when she was two years old, and her father remarried six years later. In 1892 she went to live and study with a diplomatic family friend in Teheran. She loved the Arabic language, had taken up photography, and published her first book, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, in 1907.  By then she was determined to remain in the East.

The Bell Map
At the start of the war, the Arabs held her as a spy for a short period in Hayyil. They refused to let her travel, took her money, and placed her in solitary confinement. She was in the middle of a raging war zone, and many historians are still of the opinion that she was a British spy.
Bell’s contributions in the Middle East during WWI are considered unmatched by many. The British in Cairo knew that the Arabs would be influential to success in the Eastern Theater. Her job became gathering and sorting of information. Her cartography skills and extensive travels from 1900-1913 among the various tribes using her linguistic skills enabled her to develop the “Bell Map” used by the military throughout and after the war. She knew where certain sheiks were located, their language, and their culture. This made her highly influential to British imperial policy-making throughout Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence, she helped support the political and hereditary leaderships in what are today Jordan and Iraq. 

​Post-War Challenges
We can see that Bell played an important role in negotiations regarding the Ottoman Empire after the war by her positioning in famous photos, always front and center. In one, she is on a camel in front of the Egyptian Sphinx between Lawrence and Churchill, also on camels. In another at the Cairo Conference in 1921, along with an entourage of military and diplomatic types. At the 1924 High Commission meeting in Baghdad, she’s seated with colleagues and Arab ministers. Always the only woman.
She and Lawrence began to see that the British, who had promised the Arabs an independent state if they worked with the British, might not keep their promise after the war. They fought for the Arabs during the 1919 Peace Accords.
She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, by attempting to draw new boundary lines around the country. In 1921 she was pleased when Faisal ibn Hussain was named King of Iraq, but was later disillusioned when she was no longer sought in a policy-making role.
In the mid-1920s Bell became Director of Antiquities in Baghdad, specifically to oversee the building of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. She eventually suffered a breakdown, and her family convinced her to come home. But England was no longer home, and she returned quickly to Iraq, intent on finishing the museum. A final depression soon set in, and she died in Baghdad in 1926. But she finished her work. Her last letter home described the opening of the new Iraq Museum.
During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and exerted an immense amount of power. She has been described as "one of the few representatives of His Majesty's Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection.”
If you’d like to learn more about this intriguing historical woman, Georgina Howell’s book is a good source.
​
Sources: Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations, Georgina Howell, 2006 and the links highlighted in the above text.

​Most of us know Jane Addams as the reformer who fought poverty, crime, alcoholism, and inequality from Hull House in Chicago, founded in 1889. She was also a suffragette. She and Carrie Chapman Catt, along with three-thousand others, attended a meeting in Washington D.C. in January 1915 where the Women’s Peace Party was formed. Addams was selected to chair the new party. This led to her international leadership in attempts to end the carnage of World War I (WWI). Her history of that period was reported at the time in a social reform journal, The Survey, which is included in A. Scott Berg’s World War I and America. Some of her reports follow.

​To Europe
By mid-1915, women around the world were increasingly worried about a brutal war that seemed without end. European women delegates from twelve countries, both neutral and some involved in the conflict, desired a negotiated end to the war. The newly formed International Congress of Women in the Hague set a meeting for April 1915. They needed a spokesperson for their president, and Addams, being the farthest away and from a neutral country, was the best choice.
She was charged with meeting with heads of states in Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungry, France, and Italy and some neutral countries—nine governments in five weeks. Those meetings and her reflections were included in a lecture at Carnegie Hall in New York when she returned in July. 

​
​A Proposition
The situation, she decided, is confused. She feared generalizing. But she could report that she saw “genuine emotion and patriotism in all European countries.”
One problem was that leaders needed a more careful understanding that could only be obtained through first-hand impressions and experience, not from emotional “tall talk.”  She heard the same causes and reasons for war. All reported that they were acting in self-defense. Any sign of willingness to negotiate had the potential of the enemy viewing them as weak. When meeting with heads of state, Addams asked directly, “If a proposition were presented to you, which seemed to you feasible…would you decline such a proposition? Would you feel justified to go on sacrificing the young men of your country…?” Not one was willing to commit.
Addams also met with pacifists in her travels. They convinced her that the war was breaking down civil life that would be difficult to re-establish later, and that it was an old man’s war. Many young fighting men did not want the war, and she was told that many on both sides refused to shoot to kill. Some in England pointed to the Victorian influences of hate, intolerance, and revenge, and were saddened that the younger generation had just started to overcome this negative culture prior to the war. 

​An International Body
Why, she asked, don’t the Europeans quit the current claims and counter-claims of what has occurred before and during the war and instead “embrace the point of view of ‘what does Europe need?’” In other words, stop the “He did that to me, so I did that to him.” She suggested that, like a mother, someone should step in and say, “This can’t go on, it only leads to quarreling.” She didn’t mention ‘peace’ as she met with them, merely “can’t we see what can be done to come together and try to resolve issues in other than military ways?”
Why, she wondered, are there international bodies for science and commerce, but none for international law? She denied newspaper reports that she was advising President Woodrow Wilson. But it’s possible as his later ideas regarding a league of nations reflect her comments. 

Epilogue
The United States entered the conflict on April 6, 1917. It is ironic that President Wilson and others could not heed the advice and experience that Addams and the International Congress of Women in The Hague provided. In retrospect, maybe their work was not in vain. Perhaps they provided a model for the future.
​
Sources:
The Survey, July 17, 1915
World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It, A. Scott Berg, ed., 2017, pages 170-186
Next time: Women in WWI continues: Gertrude Bell, Nation Builder

​One of Edith Wharton’s best-known quotes is “Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.” Her activities leading up to World War I certainly reflected that philosophy. Born in 1862, she was best known as a novelist and playwright who used her life experiences as part of the wealthy upper-class New York aristocracy to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. She’d later, in 1921, be the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. 
In June 1915, Wharton visited the battlefields of the Western Front. The previous fall, the Flemish city of Ypres survived a heavy battle when French, Indian, and British troops defended the town against several German offensives threatening the French ports of Dunkirk and Calais. She reported her experiences in Scribner’s Magazine and in Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort. Excerpts of some, below, are edited in World War I and America: Told by the Americans Who Lived It by A. Scott Berg.

​Arriving at the Front
In June 1915, Wharton’s motor car could barely make it through a steady stream of soldiers of all types—cavalry, mechanics, munitions workers, and others. She could hardly see them for the heavy dust being raised by their movement. Her gift for descriptive writing is evident as she describes the sun creating a “flash of lances” and a small touch of gold on faded uniforms.
She next describes the beauty of the environment in an area untouched by the war—farmhouses, duck ponds, beautiful flowers—everything sweet and secluded, including an ancient abbey church. Except for the French architecture, many of the villages reminded her of England.
A day later they arrived at an aviation camp spread across a green plateau. The English had hastily made an English town in nearby St. Omer, where the British Red Cross and the ambulance corps were stationed. 

​Battle Views
Soon she was in Cassel, a Renaissance town with the most extensive view of any town in Europe. The square was filled with English army motors and horses. On top of the ‘rock of Cassel’ they could see Dunkerque, Ypres, and other towns, many ruined, through the mist. Later that night, while the town below them slept, Wharton and a small band returned to the rock and could see red flashes and white flares along the fighting lines far away.
The next day they rode through territory that was often questionably behind the imaginary German boundary lines. In improvised camps, tents were made from wagon covers, shirts were laid out to dry on elder bushes, and soldiers played with local children or talked to citizens. They came to an empty town with only shells of buildings remaining. Odd, a town with no people.
They continued through several similar villages that day. She was disheartened. Had these towns been under an evil shadow, that Germany had willed that these places should die?  More than once the next few days, she was unprepared for a bombardment by “big guns” that caused their entourage to change their travel route.
They arrived near the Northern Ocean. The contrasts of a standing Gothic church and houses with fronts torn off made a deep impression on her. She felt that the painful sights of human wounds—dangling bedsteads, trashed chairs and stoves—were greater than those of the wounded church. But she was also relieved that the human spirit was still alive. Curious children played at a bomb crater; women bartered for kitchen utensils. In a nearby field, a colonel was holding a medal ceremony.
On leaving the battle zones, she again waited for an hour as fresh troops marched past, raising dust, toward the front.

​Literary Storytelling
The difference in writing styles between author Wharton and journalist Nellie Bly, the subject of the last blog post, or reformer Jane Adams (next post) is interesting. Bly’s and Adams’s reports are factual. Wharton brings a literary style to her reports, making her descriptions more vivid and interesting.
 

Next time: Women and World War I Continues: Jane Adams, Reformer

​Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s, and prepared for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com

Researching more on World War I (WWI) the bibliography continues to expand. I just finished A. Scott Berg’s World War I and America: told by the American’s Who Lived It which includes letters, news articles and other written material from the time important to understanding the American culture and mind set concerning the war in Europe beginning in 1914. In the early years, we were still divided over whether to engage in the war. By the end of the book in 1921, President Warren G. Harding is commenting during the burial ceremony for the grave of the Unknown American Soldier.
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Although the books accounts include few women, those present are impressive. Among them are Nellie Bly, Edith Wharton, Jane Addams and Willa Cather. All had experiences or opinions on The Great War.

Nellie Bly

Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman worked as a reporter for the New York World in the 1880’s using the pseudonym Nellie Bly. She famously traveled the world in seventy-two days and exposed the Blackwell Island Asylum by posing as a patient.

In spring 1914 she was traveling in Austria to raise funds for a business inherited from her husband. For a reporter, it was a case of being unexpectedly in the right place at the right time. On June 28, 1914 Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by Bosnian revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip.  

 From fall 1914 until early 1915 Bly would deliver twenty-one dispatches as a Special Correspondent for the New York Evening Journal from Przemysl, Austrian Galicia, in what is now Poland, and from field hospitals in Budapest. Like others reporting at the time, what she saw led her to question the sacrifices made in wartime. Many read these accounts which led to anti-war sentiment in the states which probably helped President Wilson delay his decision to engage in the war. 

Bly Reports from the Front

She traveled with a diverse group of individuals—military, artists, writers, photographers, and editors. Readers followed the continuing headlines about Bly’s experiences:
“Hides in Trenches as Russian Shells Rain About Her”
“Nowhere to Hide and as Slippery as Ice!”
“Under Fire for Weeks in the Rain and Cold”

Field Hospitals

Bly reported from a field hospital that she saw one man with jaws broken in thirty-two pieces by a shrapnel, hanging shapeless on his chest. He’d been in a trench in pouring rain for six days after being wounded with no food or aid. All they could do was try to attach the jaw to his face with a silver wire.

When she reached a military hospital in Budapest, she found ten languages being spoken and nurses from five countries. Patients near death were moved to soundproof rooms to ease the anxiety of fellow patients.

One day a doctor called her to the hospital. He wanted her to see the “worst case I have ever seen.” The man had lost one foot at the ankle and the other half way to the knee. The Russian had been wounded by a shot through his body. After eight days in a trench, his feet had frozen. His feet dropped off while he was being transported on a freight train and he was bleeding from open veins when he reached the hospital.

When Nellie arrived, he was still alive, moaning and mumbling. He looked at her with hollow black eyes. “What’s he saying?” she asked. The translator replied, “He’s asking for his children.” Nellie turned, moved quickly toward the door, and started down the hallway. She heard the doctor call after her “the poor fellow just died.”

"How could Emperors, Czars and Kings look on this slaughter and ever sleep again?", she asked.  The doctor replied that they do not look. It’s clear that her closing remarks in this article would tear at the heart strings of many Americans:

“This is only one case. Travel the roads from the scene of battle; search the trains; wounded, frozen, starved thousands are dying by agonizing torture—not hundreds, but thousands. And as they die thousands are being rushed into their pest-filled trenches to be slaughtered in the same way. Oh, we Christians!”
Note: This account is taken from the New York Evening Journal, January 19, 1915, (Included in World War I and America, A. Scott Berg, ed., 2017, Penguin Random House Inc. (Final quote, page 57)

Next time: Women and World War I Continues
Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s, and preparing for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. 

​We wake to a gray downpour, but as our bus nears Germany and the Rhine Valley, the moisture turns to mist. It’s the last day of the World War 2 Memorial Tour.  David and I were previously in this area on a German River Cruise, and we are glad to revisit some of our favorite places. 

​Following the Rhine River
Driving through the Rhine River Valley we stop often for views. Wide expanses of river are bordered by green hillsides, vineyards, and castle ruins. Last year we traveled this part of the river at night, so seeing the ruins so well is a treat. We see more of these on a leisurely afternoon river cruise, a perfect ending for our trip.

​Remagen Bridge
David’s father often mentioned Remagen Bridge. Visiting it on shore is  interesting. The bridge is gone, but the black structure, looking like an old castle, stands—a reminder of what our troops saw. Cargo ships pass by.
The surprise capture of a bridge across the Rhine on March 7, 1945 was front-page news in American newspapers. The battle for control of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen caused both sides to employ new weapons and tactics. The Germans used virtually every weapon at their disposal to try to destroy the bridge, including infantry and armor, howitzers, mortars, floating mines, mined boats, a railroad gun, and giant super-heavy mortars. To protect the bridge against aircraft, the Americans positioned the largest concentration of anti-aircraft weapons during World War II, leading to "the greatest antiaircraft artillery battles in American history." The German offensive failed.

Rüdesheim
Our last night is in Rudesheim, a favorite stop our previous trip. This time, instead of a short afternoon visit off the boat, we have an entire afternoon and evening at our hotel in the center of the village. The many side alleys lead to restaurants, cafes, and a variety of shopping. We find excellent German products, and buy unique beer steins and a regional Baden-Wuerttemberg flag for home. David and I both have roots in that region. Our ancestors, that of his paternal grandfather and my maternal grandfather, came to America at the same time during the Palatine troubles in the eighteenth century.

​The farewell dinner is bittersweet. We are all ready to return home, but it has been an unforgettable experience. Franz and Gloria, the German immigrant and his spouse from New York are extending their trip to Northern Germany to visit relatives they haven’t seen for years. We wish them well. 

​Reflections
Many of us from the tour wait for the same 11:15 a.m. flight at the Frankfurt airport. Some converse, others quietly look around the terminal, read, talk on the phone or nap. David and I begin discussing what needs to be done when we get home. Re-entry into everyday life is always interesting.

On the flight home, I started thinking about what we learned from this experience. First, that thirty individuals from diverse sections of the United States of different cultures, beliefs and politics can co-exist well over seventeen days given common interests. This was accomplished in a time of severe political disagreement in our country. Our common interest and respect for history was more important.

Most were able to use these experiences to connect with their ancestors in the closest way possible give the distance of time. Also, it was easy for us to be visually overwhelmed by the photos, documentaries, films, museums and architecture of cities little changed since the early and mid-20th century, and many cases, centuries before. All of this speaks to a passion and need for preservation that Europeans appreciate.
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I hope you all can make such a trip in your lifetime, regardless of what heritage or history you are searching for.

​Next time: World War 1
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Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She enjoys speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920’s, and preparing for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, or on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. 

​Day fifteen of the World War 2 Memorial Tour takes us to Amsterdam. The city and its canals are beautiful, but for our tour, the Anne Frank House is an important stop. The weather has cooperated the entire trip with just occasional mist during this usually rainy period.

​The City
This is my third time cruising the Amsterdam canals, once before with David during an earlier Rhine and Danube River Cruise and years ago with my daughter on a Netherlands tour. I still love the feel of going back in time that the local architecture provides. Looking at my Flemish and Netherlandish prints at home, time stands still. Artist Johannes Vermeer is a favorite.

​After the cruise we are dropped off at the Town Square. We have time to shop today and the Delft shop is one I can’t resist, especially the jewelry. The local restaurants are full on this busy noon, so we opt for the quick and familiar KFC and meet others from our group with the same idea. Marijuana smells permeate the air around us. Supposedly it’s only legal to smoke it outside the store where purchased or in public spaces, but the law doesn’t seem to be enforced.

​The Anne Frank House
The house is a fitting Holocaust-related visit near the end of our travels. The line to enter stretches around the corner. It’s always that way. The house is small. The instructions in our itinerary say “not recommended for those who may have difficulty climbing steep staircases or who are bothered by crowds or close quarters.” No one speaks as we walk through the house. There’s no rule. It just doesn’t seem appropriate. The history of the Holocaust seems to continue to speak most effectively to the world through the diary of one young girl. 

We all relate to her in our own way. I have a framed copy of one of her poignant quotes from the diary in my writing room:
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“As long as this exists,” I thought, “and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy. The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and god. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and the God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

Traditions
On the way out of town, we make two stops to learn about three important traditions. The first is to a small manufacturing building where cheeses and wooden shoes are made. 



We also stop at a lovely old windmill, one of few remaining working ones in the area. ​

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