26 - Once There Was a War (1958)

Summary

“Once There Was a War.”

Booklist, 55

(1 September 1958), 8.

A troop ship's Atlantic crossing, an American air base in England, and the invasion of Italy are among the many scenes and events depicted by a World War II correspondent whose immediate, unsentimental prose recaptures time, place, and mood. Originally sent as dispatches to the New York Herald Tribune and other newspapers, the pieces deftly underline the human element that survives even in the midst of war's impersonality.

T. Houlihan.

“Once There Was a War.”

Library Journal, 83

(15 September 1958), 2436.

This collection of World War II news dispatches by the noted author brings to mind the journalistic maxim that there is nothing quite so dead as yesterday's news. Nevertheless, these dispatches, written in 1943 when Steinbeck covered England, Italy and Africa as a war correspondent, contain some excellent sketches depicting the humor and tragedy of war, and the fear and courage of men and women in combat. Fans of Steinbeck will enjoy this collection, as will many of those who saw action in the places covered by the author…

John H. Thompson.

“Steinbeck's War Stories.”

Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine of Books,

26 October 1958, p. 10.

“Once upon a time there was a war,” are the first lines written by John Steinbeck in this book, “but so long ago and so shouldered out of the way by other wars and other kinds of wars that even people who were there are apt to forget.”