Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart

by Homer Bigart, Betsy Wade (Compiler & Editor), Harrison E. Salisbury (Contributor)

Among journalists of two generations—and particularly war correspondents—Homer Bigart was both legend and example. In a career of four decades, first with The New York Herald Tribune and then, through 1972, with The New York Times, Bigart distinguished himself as a superb writer and tireless digger for the realities that could be learned only in the field and not at headquarters. In 1943 Bigart sailed for England to cover the air war and was soon on muleback in Sicily, and hanging on at Anzio. He then went to the Pacific, where his dispatches won him his first Pulitzer Prize for foreign correspondence. When hostilities erupted in Korea he was again on the front lines in the Orient, and again recipient of a Pulitzer. By the time of the American involvement in Vietnam, he was an old-timer, a seasoned correspondent admired and celebrated for his wit but regarded with awe for his masterly stories, in which straightforward prose, informed by tenacious reporting, cut to the heart of the issues. Previously available only in crumbling library copies of the Tribune and the Times, or in microfilm repositories, his dispatches, with their rare insights into warfare and the minds of those who wage war, are now collected in Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart, edited by Betsy Wade and introduced by Harrison E. Salisbury, himself the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Forward Positions does honor to a breed of journalist that had passed into history by the time of Bigart's death. It includes one of the first accounts of the atomic annihilation of Hiroshima, a report on the war-crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, a number of dispatches on "hot" battles of the Cold War, and a probing dispatch on Lieutenant William Calley's testimony on the My Lai massacre. With this representative selection of more than fifty of Bigart's accounts of war on the ground, in the air, and in the courtroom, Wade provides a wealth of background material about his career.

Genres: Journalism, Nonfiction

300 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[Brian Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forward Positions: The War Correspondence of Homer Bigart is a collection of Bigart’s reporting beginning from before the U. S. entered World War II to after the American war in Vietnam. It’s a treat to be able to read the dispatches of one of the great correspondents of the 20th century. It’s also interesting to see his development as a writer; and his writing is, of course, inspirational. Bigart wrote about combat, from the front, in harms way to a great degree. Bigart’s approach had much in common with that of Ernie Pyle (whom I consider to be one of the greatest nonfiction writers of the last century) but whereas Pyle wrote about the soldiers on the front line, Bigart wrote about the action on the front line. Both should still be read in J-school.

Forward Positions includes introductory material and commentary which enriches the chronology. This extra material includes the legendary story about Bigart’s response when he learned that his arch rival, Marguerite Higgins, had given birth: “did she eat it.”

Bigart was the consummate professional of his generation, winning two Pulitzer Prizes, and mentor to the journalists of Neal Sheehan’s generation.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across references Homer Bigart's name in William Prochnau's book ONCE UPON A DISTANT WAR in which he tells the story of the travails of young reporters in Vietnam in the early years of America's involvement with corrupt Diem regime there. Bigart was something of a legend among the reporters there, a kind of iconic war correspondent. I went looking for more information on Bigart and found this book at ABE for a reasonable price.

In this volume Betsy White has compiled selected stories that Bigart filed from Europe during the WWII, from Greece and the Middle East, from Korea and from his final assignment in Vietnam.

This was book #33 on our 2016 Read-aloud list.