Into the Valley: A Skirmish of the Marines, by John Hersey (HC, 1943, first edition, $4)
John Hersey was born in China to missionary parents. He spoke Chinese before he learned English. His parents moved back to the States when he was 10. He went to Yale. One summer he worked as a secretary for Sinclair Lewis, and hated it. When he got an offer to become a foreign correspondent, he grabbed it. He would go on to report on WW II. He was with the troops when they landed at Sicily. (That's when he survived four, yes four, plane crashes!) From there he went in with the marines at Guadalcanal, where there weren't any plane crashes, but plenty of everything else. The Secretary of the Navy gave him a commendation for helping evacuate the wounded there. I doubt most journalists end up with navy commendations, but he was clearly unique.
This is the true story of an three day long "insignificant battle". "But the battle... illustrated how war feels to men everywhere. The terrain, the weapons and races of war vary, but certainly never the sensations except in degree, for they are as universal as those of love. This book is an attempt to recapture the feelings of Rigaud, his men, and myself, when we went into that jungle valley. If people in the homes could feel those feelings for an hour, or even just know about them, I think we would be an inch or two closer to winning the war and trying like hell to make the peace permanent."
New Journalism got its name in the 1970s, but Hersey was using "storytelling devices of the novel... fused with non-fiction reportage" much earlier. His truly amazing book was Hiroshima, but he won the 1945 Pulitzer for A Bell For Adano. (I have always loved that book, and have had a copy in my library for 40 years.) (Ye gads, don't I now feel old!) Look for this book in the classics section, avail. 2/22.
