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Writers on World War II: An Anthology
Gathers poetry, essays, letters, memoirs, fiction, and journal entries by W.H. Auden, Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and others
727 pages, Paperback
First published January 3, 1989
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About the author
Mordecai Richler
87 books370 followersWorking-class Jewish background based novels, which include
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
(1959) and
Saint Urbain's Horseman
(1971), of Canadian writer Mordecai Richler.
People best know Barney's Version (1997) among works of this author, screenwriter, and essayist; people shortlisted his novel Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989) for the Man Booker Prize in 1990. He was also well known for the Jacob Two-two stories of children.
A scrap yard dealer reared this son on street in the mile end area of Montréal. He learned Yiddish and English and graduated from Baron Byng High School. Richler enrolled in Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) to study English but dropped before completing his degree.
Years later, Leah Rosenberg, mother of Richler, published an autobiography, The Errand Runner: Memoirs of a Rabbi's Daughter (1981), which discusses birth and upbringing of Mordecai and the sometime difficult relationship.
Richler, intent on following in the footsteps of many of a previous "lost generation" of literary exiles of the 1920s from the United States, moved to Paris at age of 19 years in 1950.
Richler returned to Montréal in 1952, worked briefly at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and then moved to London in 1954. He, living in London meanwhile, published seven of his ten novels as well as considerable journalism.
Worrying "about being so long away from the roots of my discontent", Richler returned to Montréal in 1972. He wrote repeatedly about the Jewish community of Montréal and especially portraying his former neighborhood in multiple novels.
In England in 1954, Richler married Catherine Boudreau, a French-Canadian divorcée nine years his senior. On the eve of their wedding, he met Florence Wood Mann, a young married woman, who smited him.
Some years later, Richler and Mann divorced and married each other. He adopted Daniel Mann, her son. The couple had five children together: Daniel, Jacob, Noah, Martha and Emma. These events inspired his novel Barney's Version.
Richler died of cancer.
People best know Barney's Version (1997) among works of this author, screenwriter, and essayist; people shortlisted his novel Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989) for the Man Booker Prize in 1990. He was also well known for the Jacob Two-two stories of children.
A scrap yard dealer reared this son on street in the mile end area of Montréal. He learned Yiddish and English and graduated from Baron Byng High School. Richler enrolled in Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) to study English but dropped before completing his degree.
Years later, Leah Rosenberg, mother of Richler, published an autobiography, The Errand Runner: Memoirs of a Rabbi's Daughter (1981), which discusses birth and upbringing of Mordecai and the sometime difficult relationship.
Richler, intent on following in the footsteps of many of a previous "lost generation" of literary exiles of the 1920s from the United States, moved to Paris at age of 19 years in 1950.
Richler returned to Montréal in 1952, worked briefly at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and then moved to London in 1954. He, living in London meanwhile, published seven of his ten novels as well as considerable journalism.
Worrying "about being so long away from the roots of my discontent", Richler returned to Montréal in 1972. He wrote repeatedly about the Jewish community of Montréal and especially portraying his former neighborhood in multiple novels.
In England in 1954, Richler married Catherine Boudreau, a French-Canadian divorcée nine years his senior. On the eve of their wedding, he met Florence Wood Mann, a young married woman, who smited him.
Some years later, Richler and Mann divorced and married each other. He adopted Daniel Mann, her son. The couple had five children together: Daniel, Jacob, Noah, Martha and Emma. These events inspired his novel Barney's Version.
Richler died of cancer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 1, 2016
This included work from many sources I've read, so I expected it to be quite good. I was not disappointed -- "Writers on World War II: An Anthology" is a true five-star book.
In the foreword, editor Mordecai Richter says he originally intended to include only work by novelists and poets but eventually decided to include diarists and journalists and historians. Good move -- some of the best material is from diaries and contemporary accounts.
Among the writers included are such well-known literary names as W.H. Auden (whose poem entitled "1st September 1939" is the first entry -- powerful!), E. L. Doctorow, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, Evelyn Waugh, Gunter Grass, and John Cheever, to mention only a few. Then there are the many excellent contributions from journalists, historians, and diarists/memoirists, among them William Manchester, Primo Levi, I. F. Stone, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Nicolson, Norman Lewis, John Keegan, A.J. Liebling, Malcolm Muggeridge, and Harrison Salisbury.
This is a book that is perfect for reading in spurts. Many pieces are very very short -- a couple paragraphs or perhaps a poem -- while a few, especially later, are fairly long. The entries are arranged chronologically, from 1939 to 1945, generally flowing from the start of a year to the end.
Through 1939 and into 1940, there were many very short entries -- some just a couple paragraphs. My biggest impression of 1939 -- most of the selections convey bewilderment, disbelief, incomprehension -- "can this really be happening (AGAIN!)?"
My favorite bit from 1939 was taken from the autobiography of an Italian Jew, 16 at the time, describing his escape to Palestine.
Halfway through 1940 -- following the defeat of France -- the main impression is of French embarrassment and shame and disgust with their leadership. Or you can take Commies JP Sarte and Simone de Beauvoir, who were disgusted with the weakness of the middle class. Best quote, from Petain just a few days before the surrender: "Since the (1918) victory, the spirit of enjoyment has won out over the spirit of sacrifice. People claimed more than they served. They wanted to save effort; today they are meeting misfortune."
Could one say the same about most societies today?
The Brits of 1940, on the other hand, are determined and gritty. The 1941 entries are mostly from the British -- as you might expect -- but there was one gripping account from Gustav Herling, a Pole sent to the Russian Gulag, that compelled me to go out and find his entire memoir. (Frankly, that's one of the dangers -- or the best fringe benefits -- of "Writers on World War II: An Anthology" -- it
made me add a half-dozen books to my "to-read" list, and I could have added 10 more).
One could go on and on citing wonderful entries, but suffice it to say, it's well worth the reading. If I have a criticism -- and how can one really fault an editor faced with so many good choices? -- it's that Russian and Italian voices are all but absent. There is nothing from the Italian diarist and foreign minister Count Galeazzo Ciano or the Italian journalist/novelist Curzio Malaparte, who wrote strange and wonderful works about the Eastern and Finnish fronts. Russian war correspondents/novelists Konstantine Simonov and Vasily Grossman also would have been good candidates for inclusion.
Japanese and German voices were represented, including a few chilling short stories.
True war correspondents are not heavily represented -- surprisingly, no Ernie Pyle -- but there's a solution for that -- it's the Library of America's two volumes "Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1938–1944" and "Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1944-1946." I've read the first volume and it's super.
In the foreword, editor Mordecai Richter says he originally intended to include only work by novelists and poets but eventually decided to include diarists and journalists and historians. Good move -- some of the best material is from diaries and contemporary accounts.
Among the writers included are such well-known literary names as W.H. Auden (whose poem entitled "1st September 1939" is the first entry -- powerful!), E. L. Doctorow, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, Evelyn Waugh, Gunter Grass, and John Cheever, to mention only a few. Then there are the many excellent contributions from journalists, historians, and diarists/memoirists, among them William Manchester, Primo Levi, I. F. Stone, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Nicolson, Norman Lewis, John Keegan, A.J. Liebling, Malcolm Muggeridge, and Harrison Salisbury.
This is a book that is perfect for reading in spurts. Many pieces are very very short -- a couple paragraphs or perhaps a poem -- while a few, especially later, are fairly long. The entries are arranged chronologically, from 1939 to 1945, generally flowing from the start of a year to the end.
Through 1939 and into 1940, there were many very short entries -- some just a couple paragraphs. My biggest impression of 1939 -- most of the selections convey bewilderment, disbelief, incomprehension -- "can this really be happening (AGAIN!)?"
My favorite bit from 1939 was taken from the autobiography of an Italian Jew, 16 at the time, describing his escape to Palestine.
Halfway through 1940 -- following the defeat of France -- the main impression is of French embarrassment and shame and disgust with their leadership. Or you can take Commies JP Sarte and Simone de Beauvoir, who were disgusted with the weakness of the middle class. Best quote, from Petain just a few days before the surrender: "Since the (1918) victory, the spirit of enjoyment has won out over the spirit of sacrifice. People claimed more than they served. They wanted to save effort; today they are meeting misfortune."
Could one say the same about most societies today?
The Brits of 1940, on the other hand, are determined and gritty. The 1941 entries are mostly from the British -- as you might expect -- but there was one gripping account from Gustav Herling, a Pole sent to the Russian Gulag, that compelled me to go out and find his entire memoir. (Frankly, that's one of the dangers -- or the best fringe benefits -- of "Writers on World War II: An Anthology" -- it
made me add a half-dozen books to my "to-read" list, and I could have added 10 more).
One could go on and on citing wonderful entries, but suffice it to say, it's well worth the reading. If I have a criticism -- and how can one really fault an editor faced with so many good choices? -- it's that Russian and Italian voices are all but absent. There is nothing from the Italian diarist and foreign minister Count Galeazzo Ciano or the Italian journalist/novelist Curzio Malaparte, who wrote strange and wonderful works about the Eastern and Finnish fronts. Russian war correspondents/novelists Konstantine Simonov and Vasily Grossman also would have been good candidates for inclusion.
Japanese and German voices were represented, including a few chilling short stories.
True war correspondents are not heavily represented -- surprisingly, no Ernie Pyle -- but there's a solution for that -- it's the Library of America's two volumes "Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1938–1944" and "Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1944-1946." I've read the first volume and it's super.
June 30, 2025
This anthology contains snippets of writings on WWII from over a hundred authors, ranging from Joseph Heller to Jessica Mitford to William Manchester to Andre Gide and many more well-known as well as little-known names.
Good: The snippets are arranged in alphabetical order, so the reader is carried through the war sequentially, from the first writings of Neville Chamberlain to the last excerpt from John Hersey’s Hiroshima. The contributors include civilians, politicians, writers, historians, so the POV is very comprehensive.
Not so good: The focus is on the European theatre, with relatively few episodes discussing the war in the Pacific (though what there is is choice – John Hersey has several excerpts, as do James Michener, John F. Kennedy, J. G. Ballard, and William Manchester.
Bad: my copy of the book has an error in the printing: I am missing pages 480-512, which include the invasion of Italy and D-day. Doubt that I will find another copy (due to my own lack of initiative as much as its overall availability).
In principle, these snippets should lead me to seek out the longer works from which they are taken. But (that lack of initiative again) I probably won’t.
I’ve already read “From Here to Eternity”, “Catch-22”, “Hiroshima” “South Pacific”…. Having the non-fiction snippets to round out my picture of the war that ended shortly after I was born is a good thing, but after700 pages (less those missing ones) I’ve had enough. This was my book to dip into as I was sipping wine on the back patio at the end of the day, and perhaps I enjoyed it extra because I knew we were going to get through it as a country and as a world, which gives me some hope for today.
Good: The snippets are arranged in alphabetical order, so the reader is carried through the war sequentially, from the first writings of Neville Chamberlain to the last excerpt from John Hersey’s Hiroshima. The contributors include civilians, politicians, writers, historians, so the POV is very comprehensive.
Not so good: The focus is on the European theatre, with relatively few episodes discussing the war in the Pacific (though what there is is choice – John Hersey has several excerpts, as do James Michener, John F. Kennedy, J. G. Ballard, and William Manchester.
Bad: my copy of the book has an error in the printing: I am missing pages 480-512, which include the invasion of Italy and D-day. Doubt that I will find another copy (due to my own lack of initiative as much as its overall availability).
In principle, these snippets should lead me to seek out the longer works from which they are taken. But (that lack of initiative again) I probably won’t.
I’ve already read “From Here to Eternity”, “Catch-22”, “Hiroshima” “South Pacific”…. Having the non-fiction snippets to round out my picture of the war that ended shortly after I was born is a good thing, but after700 pages (less those missing ones) I’ve had enough. This was my book to dip into as I was sipping wine on the back patio at the end of the day, and perhaps I enjoyed it extra because I knew we were going to get through it as a country and as a world, which gives me some hope for today.
October 25, 2024
In the foreword to this book, Richler writes "I had hoped that by assembling the works of novelists and poets who had been through World War II, not necessarily as combatants, I could put together the big picture, something like a group novel that would tell the story from the invasion of Poland to the signing of the peace treaty [with Japan]. I have not been entirely successful." Perhaps not, but I can say that his selection of accounts and reflections on the war gave me plenty to think about. It's all there: the horror, the heroism; the personal and the political. And, unfortunately, it's still all there, eighty years on.
January 29, 2016
A wonderful anthology of writing on World War II. Includes work from authors such as William Manchester, James Michener, George Orwell, Elizabeth Bowen, Janet Flanner, Elie Wiesel, Studs Terkel, Doris Lessing, Martha Gellhorn, James Jones and many others.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews