{"product_id":"once-there-was-a-war-isbn-9780143104797","title":"Once There Was a War","description":"\u003cb\u003eA Penguin Classic\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Age can never dull this kind of writing,” writes the \u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune \u003c\/i\u003eof John Steinbeck’s dispatches from World War II, filed for the \u003ci\u003eNew York Herald Tribune \u003c\/i\u003ein 1943, which vividly captured the human side of war. Writing from England in the midst of the London blitz, North Africa, and Italy, Steinbeck focuses on the people as opposed to the battles, portraying everyone from the guys in the bomber crew to Bob Hope on his USO tour. He eats and drinks with soldiers behind enemy lines, talks with them, and fights beside them. First published in book form in 1958, these writings, now with a new introduction by Mark Bowden, create an unforgettable portrait of life in wartime that continues to resonate with truth and humanity.\u003cb\u003eBy the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If you have forgotten what the war was like, Steinbeck will refresh your memory. Age can never dull this kind of writing.\"\u003cbr\u003e -\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Steinbeck\u003c\/b\u003e, born in Salinas, California, in 1902, grew up in a fertile agricultural valley, about twenty-five miles from the Pacific Coast. Both the valley and the coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next five years he supported himself as a laborer and journalist in New York City, all the time working on his first novel, \u003ci\u003eCup of Gold\u003c\/i\u003e (1929).\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e After marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California books, \u003ci\u003eThe Pastures of Heaven\u003c\/i\u003e (1932) and \u003ci\u003eTo a God Unknown\u003c\/i\u003e (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in \u003ci\u003eThe Long Valley\u003c\/i\u003e (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with \u003ci\u003eTortilla Flat\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e(1935), stories about Monterey’s paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: \u003ci\u003eIn Dubious Battle\u003c\/i\u003e (1936), \u003ci\u003eOf Mice and Men\u003c\/i\u003e (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e (1939). \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1939.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Early in the 1940s, Steinbeck became a filmmaker with \u003ci\u003eThe Forgotten Village\u003c\/i\u003e (1941) and a serious student of marine biology with \u003ci\u003eSea of Cortez\u003c\/i\u003e (1941). He devoted his services to the war, writing Bombs Away (1942) and the controversial play-novelette \u003ci\u003eThe Moon is Down\u003c\/i\u003e (1942).\u003ci\u003eCannery Row\u003c\/i\u003e (1945), \u003ci\u003eThe Wayward Bus\u003c\/i\u003e (1948), another experimental drama, \u003ci\u003eBurning Bright\u003c\/i\u003e(1950), and \u003ci\u003eThe Log from the Sea of Cortez\u003c\/i\u003e (1951) preceded publication of the monumental \u003ci\u003eEast of Eden\u003c\/i\u003e (1952), an ambitious saga of the Salinas Valley and his own family’s history.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The last decades of his life were spent in New York City and Sag Harbor with his third wife, with whom he traveled widely. Later books include \u003ci\u003eSweet Thursday\u003c\/i\u003e (1954), \u003ci\u003eThe Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication\u003c\/i\u003e (1957), \u003ci\u003eOnce There Was a War\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e(1958), \u003ci\u003eThe Winter of Our Discontent \u003c\/i\u003e(1961),\u003ci\u003eTravels with Charley in Search of America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e(1962), \u003ci\u003eAmerica and Americans\u003c\/i\u003e (1966), and the posthumously published \u003ci\u003eJournal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters\u003c\/i\u003e (1969), \u003ci\u003eViva Zapata!\u003c\/i\u003e(1975), \u003ci\u003eThe Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights\u003c\/i\u003e (1976), and \u003ci\u003eWorking Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e (1989).\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, and, in 1964, he was presented with the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Steinbeck died in New York in 1968. Today, more than thirty years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. \u003cp\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTitle Page\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCopyright Page\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eENGLAND\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAFRICA\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eITALY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePENGUINCLASSICS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eONCE THERE WAS A WAR\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn in Salinas, California, in 1902, JOHN STEINBECK grew up in a fertile agricultural valley about twenty-five miles from the Pacific Coast—and both valley and coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next five years he supported himself as a laborer and journalist in New York City, all the time working on his first novel, \u003ci\u003eCup of Gold\u003c\/i\u003e (1929). After marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California fictions,  \u003ci\u003eThe Pastures of Heaven\u003c\/i\u003e (1932) and \u003ci\u003eTo a God Unknown\u003c\/i\u003e (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in \u003ci\u003eThe Long Valley\u003c\/i\u003e (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with \u003ci\u003eTortilla Flat\u003c\/i\u003e  (1935), stories about Monterey’s \u003ci\u003epaisanos\u003c\/i\u003e. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: \u003ci\u003eIn Dubious Battle\u003c\/i\u003e (1936), \u003ci\u003eOf Mice and Men\u003c\/i\u003e (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e (1939). Early in the 1940s, Steinbeck became a filmmaker with \u003ci\u003eThe Forgotten Village\u003c\/i\u003e (1941) and a serious student of marine biology with \u003ci\u003eSea of Cortez\u003c\/i\u003e (1941). He devoted his services to the war, writing \u003ci\u003eBombs Away\u003c\/i\u003e (1942) and the controversial play-novelette \u003ci\u003eThe Moon Is Down\u003c\/i\u003e (1942). \u003ci\u003eCannery Row\u003c\/i\u003e (1945), \u003ci\u003eThe Wayward Bus\u003c\/i\u003e (1947),  \u003ci\u003eThe Pearl\u003c\/i\u003e (1947), \u003ci\u003eA Russian Journal\u003c\/i\u003e (1948), another experimental drama, \u003ci\u003eBurning Bright\u003c\/i\u003e (1950), and \u003ci\u003eThe Log from the Sea of Cortez\u003c\/i\u003e  (1951) preceded publication of the monumental \u003ci\u003eEast of Eden\u003c\/i\u003e  (1952), an ambitious saga of the Salinas Valley and his own family’s history. The last decades of his life were spent in New York City and Sag Harbor with his third wife, with whom he traveled widely. Later books include \u003ci\u003eSweet Thursday\u003c\/i\u003e (1954), \u003ci\u003eThe Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication\u003c\/i\u003e (1957), \u003ci\u003eOnce There Was a War\u003c\/i\u003e (1958), \u003ci\u003eThe Winter of Our Discontent\u003c\/i\u003e (1961), \u003ci\u003eTravels with Charley in Search of America\u003c\/i\u003e  (1962), \u003ci\u003eAmerica and Americans\u003c\/i\u003e (1966), and the posthumously published \u003ci\u003eJournal of a Novel: The\u003c\/i\u003e East of Eden \u003ci\u003eLetters\u003c\/i\u003e (1969), \u003ci\u003eViva Zapata!\u003c\/i\u003e (1975), \u003ci\u003eThe Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights\u003c\/i\u003e  (1976), and \u003ci\u003eWorking Days: The Journals of\u003c\/i\u003e The Grapes of Wrath (1989). He died in 1968, having won a Nobel Prize in 1962.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMARK BOWDEN is the author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller and National Book Award finalist \u003ci\u003eBlack Hawk Down\u003c\/i\u003e as well as \u003ci\u003eRoad Work\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKilling Pablo\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eGuest of the Ayatollah\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a national correspondent for the \u003ci\u003eAtlantic Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e and teaches creative writing and journalism at Loyola College in Maryland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePENGUIN BOOKS \u003cbr\u003ePublished by the Penguin Group \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, \u003cbr\u003eOntario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, \u003cbr\u003eVictoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0745, \u003cbr\u003eAuckland, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, \u003cbr\u003eRosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa \u003cbr\u003ePenguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: \u003cbr\u003e80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England \u003cbr\u003eFirst published in the United States of America by The Viking Press 1958 \u003cbr\u003ePublished in Penguin Books 1977 \u003cbr\u003eThis edition with an introduction by Mark Bowden published 2007 \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eC\u003c\/i\u003eopyright © John Steinbeck, 1943, 1958\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eC\u003c\/i\u003eopyright renewed Elaine Steinbeck, John Steinbeck IV and Thom Steinbeck, 1971, 1986 \u003cbr\u003eIntroduction copyright © Mark Bowden, 2007 \u003cbr\u003eAll rights reserved \u003cbr\u003eThe dispatches in this book appeared in the \u003ci\u003eNew York Herald Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e and other newspapers. \u003cbr\u003eLIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA \u003cbr\u003eSteinbeck, John, 1902-1968 \u003cbr\u003eOnce there was a war \/ John Steinbeck ; introduction by Mark Bowden. \u003cbr\u003ep. cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeISBN : 978-0-143-10479-7\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. World War, 1939-1945. I. Title. \u003cbr\u003eD743.S65 2007 \u003cbr\u003e940.53—dc22 2007016061 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means \u003cbr\u003ewithout the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase \u003cbr\u003eonly authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic \u003cbr\u003epiracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is little in this classic collection of reporting that reveals the fascinating journey of the Nobel Prize-winning author behind them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Steinbeck could easily have avoided World War II. When he shipped out as a correspondent in 1943, he was already world famous for \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath,\u003c\/i\u003e which had been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature and turned into a popular and acclaimed film. He was too old for the draft at age forty-one, and was living an enviable professional life, with publishers eager for his next novel and Hollywood as his playground. He was a celebrity. Newspapers had covered every detail of his recent divorce and remarriage, and when he decided to leave his bride in New York in order to help cover the war, that, too, was news.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo why go to war? Patriotism was part of it. Steinbeck had benefited early in his career by some of the New Deal programs for writers and artists during the Depression, and may have felt a desire to give something back, to use his talent to further the “War Effort,” a concept he described with typically wry insight in the introduction to this volume. But perhaps the deeper reason was the urge felt by most men in those years to “see action,” to play some role in, if only to witness, the sweeping historical drama of the age. The world was traumatically changing shape, and to be on the sidelines must have felt like being dealt out of the future. Recruited directly by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the novelist first contributed by writing propaganda—perhaps the most talented hack ever pressed into such service. He wrote a novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Moon Is Down,\u003c\/i\u003e for a precursor to the CIA, and the book \u003ci\u003eBombs\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003ci\u003eAway,\u003c\/i\u003e about a bomber crew, for the Office of War Information. But when Steinbeck pressed for work closer to the front lines, he was told he would need to be commissioned as a military officer. As if determined to prove that there is no boon too great for government bureaucracy to squander, his request to become an air force intelligence officer was scuttled by his local draft board in California, which concluded on the basis of rumor and suspicion alone that the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e was sufficiently “communistic” to be regarded as a security risk. Thwarted, Steinbeck complained to friends at a dinner party in New York, lamenting that he would “never see the war.” He was promptly offered the job of correspondent for the \u003ci\u003eNew York Herald Tribune.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis six-month stint produced these reports, which show that for all his acclaim as a novelist, Steinbeck had not lost his humility as a writer. His reporting shows the same extraordinary empathy for the common man that ran so deep in all his work. There is a point he makes repeatedly in these dispatches, and it is this: The closer you get to war, the less you know about what is going on. He quotes a soldier, “I remember before I joined up I used to know everything that was happening. I knew what Turkey was doing. I even had maps with pins and I drew out campaigns with colored pencils. Now I haven’t looked at a paper in two weeks.” Close to action one sees only what is happening in the immediate vicinity, and in action that perspective is all one can afford.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a different thing, then, to be at war than to be observing and watching it from a safe distance. Steinbeck surrendered any attempt to understand the big picture, and immersed himself. Nowhere in these reports are there assessments or critiques of campaign strategy or accounts of massive troop movements. With the novelist we are simply \u003ci\u003ein\u003c\/i\u003e the war, swept along with millions of our countrymen. And like the others, mostly what we experience is neither thrilling nor terrible. Steinbeck understood that for most soldiers, the real experience of the war involved a lot of sitting around and waiting, often in unfamiliar and uncomfortable places, with many other men in the same boat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn England, where forces were massed for the coming great assault on France and Germany, correspondents had already been competing for years over every scrap of news and every obvious feature story. Many journalists considered the place tapped out. Yet Steinbeck immediately found new material by focusing on things that “serious” journalists might regard as insignificant, and filling his accounts with workmanlike description, such as this meticulous picture of the barracks housing a Flying Fortress bomber crew: “The room is long and narrow and unpainted. Against each side wall are iron double-decker bunks, alternating with clothes lockers. A long rack in the middle between the bunks serves as a hanger for winter coats and raincoats. Next to it is the rack of rifles and submachine guns of the crew.” Details that would escape the eye of most reporters captured his, like the little gray dog that is “almost a Scottie,” who knew exactly which of the returning bombers carried his crew and would race out to greet it the moment it landed. Far more than the particulars of troop movements or the pronouncements of generals, far more than news of small victories or defeats, Steinbeck knew his readers craved stories that captured what the war looked like, how it sounded, how it smelled, how it felt. Millions of fathers, mothers, sisters, girlfriends, and wives were desperate to better understand the experience of their warriors overseas. So in each column of only eight hundred to a thousand words, Steinbeck crafted a picture in language out of the places he visited and the characters he met. He listened for the fears, joys, rumors, superstitions, and small triumphs and spun them into small stories that defined life in these long, tense months of waiting and preparation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301111419109,"sku":"NP9780143104797","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143104797.jpg?v=1767734142","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/once-there-was-a-war-isbn-9780143104797","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}