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Home Country
Hardcover, no dust jacket.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1940
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 20, 2018
These are a collection of syndicated travelogue articles that Ernie Pyle wrote for newspapers between 1935 and 1940. Ernie Pyle has a unique writing style. He does not probe or investigate, his writing is folksy – or one could say humanist. And he certainly, as many of these stories illustrate, goes after the oddities in life. If the character is eccentric or the location secluded Ernie Pyle finds them! And he has a self-deprecating humour as well.
The stories mostly range from rural to remote – and during that time period the U.S. was less urban and less populated than now. And the stories reach out of the continental U.S. to Mexico, Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii. There is an astonishing story on a leper colony in Hawaii.
There are some articles on the Southern U.S. (Alabama, Georgia). Ernie Pyle does not dwell on racial issues at all, but he does point out the extreme poverty (disease, poor education, lack of even outdoor toilets...) he witnessed on Southern rural tenant farms as contrasted with farms in Northern States.
It would seem he travelled frequently with his wife, but she is barely mentioned; and if so, in a curious round-about way!
Apparently this book was constructed from newspaper articles written in the 1930’s. I felt that this book could have been condensed much more than the editors say it was. At 470 pages one becomes mesmerized and over-stuffed by all the characters and locations.
Page 267 (my book)
On a California road map you could see a place called Cave Springs. But when you got there you found it was not a town. It was not a village, not even a country post office. It was just a private home with two people in it. It was on the map because it was the only house in a stretch of a hundred and forty miles. Mrs. Ira Sweetman and her cousin, Adrian Egbert, lived there. It was sixty miles to a store in one direction, eighty miles in the other. Either way, it was all desert. Sometimes you could hardly tell where the dirt road was.
“Do many travellers use this road?” I asked Mr. Egbert.
“Yes,” he said, “There was a car past here just the other day.”
Mrs, Sweetman and Mr. Egbert lived in this out-of-the-way place by choice. They didn’t have to raise anything, or scratch for a living. They were simply retired. They were getting along in years – between sixty-five and seventy...they had every comfort and were on the desert because they liked it.
Their home was on the south rim of Death Valley, in a gap in the mountains thirty-six hundred feet high. From their door you looked down into the fabulous valley below sea level. At night you could see a campfire fifty-five miles away on the valley floor.
The stories mostly range from rural to remote – and during that time period the U.S. was less urban and less populated than now. And the stories reach out of the continental U.S. to Mexico, Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii. There is an astonishing story on a leper colony in Hawaii.
There are some articles on the Southern U.S. (Alabama, Georgia). Ernie Pyle does not dwell on racial issues at all, but he does point out the extreme poverty (disease, poor education, lack of even outdoor toilets...) he witnessed on Southern rural tenant farms as contrasted with farms in Northern States.
It would seem he travelled frequently with his wife, but she is barely mentioned; and if so, in a curious round-about way!
Apparently this book was constructed from newspaper articles written in the 1930’s. I felt that this book could have been condensed much more than the editors say it was. At 470 pages one becomes mesmerized and over-stuffed by all the characters and locations.
Page 267 (my book)
On a California road map you could see a place called Cave Springs. But when you got there you found it was not a town. It was not a village, not even a country post office. It was just a private home with two people in it. It was on the map because it was the only house in a stretch of a hundred and forty miles. Mrs. Ira Sweetman and her cousin, Adrian Egbert, lived there. It was sixty miles to a store in one direction, eighty miles in the other. Either way, it was all desert. Sometimes you could hardly tell where the dirt road was.
“Do many travellers use this road?” I asked Mr. Egbert.
“Yes,” he said, “There was a car past here just the other day.”
Mrs, Sweetman and Mr. Egbert lived in this out-of-the-way place by choice. They didn’t have to raise anything, or scratch for a living. They were simply retired. They were getting along in years – between sixty-five and seventy...they had every comfort and were on the desert because they liked it.
Their home was on the south rim of Death Valley, in a gap in the mountains thirty-six hundred feet high. From their door you looked down into the fabulous valley below sea level. At night you could see a campfire fifty-five miles away on the valley floor.
March 9, 2012
I picked up this old used copy at a library book sale. I didn't really know if I would get around to reading it. However, once I began perusing it I couldn't put it down. My yellowed, slightly battered copy fit me like a good old pair of comfortable shoes. Humorous and heartwarming, this book is a compilation of many of Ernie's columns written before he became a war correspondent for WWII. Ernie traveled across this country--and south and north of the border recounting the fascinating people, places and experiences he met, visited, and had. His down-home, unpretentious voice shows why he was so popular as a journalist. Not being as familiar as I felt I should have been about good ole Ernie, I looked up his biography. He had become a friend, and sadness filled me when I realized he never made it home from the war, back to his "Home Country." This book was published in 1947 posthumously. Everyone should read this.
May 18, 2012
What was the centerpiece of Pyle's work? Places? No, oh yes he did an adequate job describing deserts or rivers or frozen landscapes but the places pale in comparison to the PEOPLE he met! We have as a nation sired hundreds of true characters: fur trappers, inventors, scholars, former slaves, record-setters, the diseased and the incurably healthy of advanced age.
This was America before 1940. If I pray real hard, can I please go back there?
This was America before 1940. If I pray real hard, can I please go back there?
November 29, 2012
A marvelous book picked up for $2 at local Friends of Library sale. Covers Pyle's journeys around America from 1935-1940 -- a collection of columns grouped by locale. Universally witty and often just plain funny, and constantly an inspiration to find out more about some of his subjects. Sometimes as poignant as his wartime writings . . . Pyle truly was always on the lookout for the best in people and places . . . but he was not shy about telling you when he found the worst!
I think of this book in the same light as Alistair Cooke's "The American Home Front, 1941-1942," also an account of travels around America. Pyle is more fun . . . of course, his country was not at war at the time.
I think of this book in the same light as Alistair Cooke's "The American Home Front, 1941-1942," also an account of travels around America. Pyle is more fun . . . of course, his country was not at war at the time.
December 4, 2017
What a fun book! I picked this old, beat-up edition at a used book store years ago, finally picked it up to read it, then could hardly put it down. For five years in the 1930s, Ernie Pyle traveled the world and U.S. writing articles about the people and places he’d met and been. Every one was interesting, especially in light of the changes in the past 80 years. When he writes about places, you are immediately intrigued, wondering what the place is like now or, having been there yourself, KNOWING of the changes. I found myself googling the people and places to find what had happened to them. Ernie was a "character" and a captivating writer. Do yourself a favor and get a copy of Home Country.
February 1, 2016
There was a time when newspapers paid young reporters to visit interesting places and write feature stories about the people they met along the way. Ernie Pyle, who was one of the best-known war reporters during WWII, but is now forgotten, was one of those young reporters with a keen eye for fascinating people. This book is a collection of his article for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, written from 1935-1940. I borrowed this copy from the library, but may go on Amazon and buy one (like many old, forgotten books, a copy can be had cheaply), because you can open it at any random page and enjoy a couple of stories before putting the book down.
A perfect antidote to this cynical age.
A perfect antidote to this cynical age.
October 27, 2008
The best essays ever--by the least pretentious writer. Pyle's dispatches from America are, in their way, timeless. Hilarious, poignant, beautiful.
April 17, 2020
FYI - not a review but a brief comment instead.
Ernie Pyle was a widely read journalist during the first half of the 20th century. As a foreign correspondent he died in WWII.
This book includes many pre-WWII writings about his many travels across America and other countries.
He was well known in New Mexico and visited several times. He said about Albuquerque, New Mexico,
"We hardly dare go to Albuquerque, we hate so to leave."
I enjoyed many of these short travel pieces, especially those where I could compare his experiences with conditions in those locations today.
Ernie Pyle was a widely read journalist during the first half of the 20th century. As a foreign correspondent he died in WWII.
This book includes many pre-WWII writings about his many travels across America and other countries.
He was well known in New Mexico and visited several times. He said about Albuquerque, New Mexico,
"We hardly dare go to Albuquerque, we hate so to leave."
I enjoyed many of these short travel pieces, especially those where I could compare his experiences with conditions in those locations today.
November 27, 2024
This took a long time to read given the difference in style over the last hundred years - but it was worth the push. Compassionate and interesting profiles of Americans from drives around the country in the 1920s and 1930s, with a self-effacing tone and a respect for how people stepped into roles that we wouldn't ever think would exist (rattlesnake packager, as one example).
May 12, 2018
Most people know about Ernie Pyle's WWII writing, this book give you insights into the earlier Ernie, an earlier time in America and what Americans were like in the lat 1930's. Fantastic book.
April 23, 2021
This is the first book I've ever read by Ernie Pyle and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's full of little short stories that I found very interesting and entertaining. I really liked his writing style.
January 2, 2016
When I read Ernie Pyle's "Brave Men" and "Here Is Your War" in elementary school, I wasn't insensitive, but I hadn't experienced death yet, so I didn't understand what it means to be in the middle of a life. Reading "Home Country" as an adult is as different from my first Ernie Pyle experiences as childhood is from adulthood. It's stories of lives, just like "Brave Men" and "Here Is Your War", but it's the lives of people who were living in North America between about 1935 and 1940. You can read it for the cultural history of what life was like then. Or you can read it for the stories of people, one life at a time. I keep wondering whatever happened to the three daughters of Maud Berglund of Fort Yukon, Alaska. You can google her, but if you read the whole story on pages 171-179, you can feel it better.
While reading "Home Country," I realized that almost everyone I was reading about was long gone. I imagine a few of the children Pyle talks about are still living, but they would be at least 85. There's a line on p. 445: "And we were sad at leaving because, in the way of all things, no man knows but that this backward glance over the shoulder may be his last glance forever."
While reading "Home Country," I realized that almost everyone I was reading about was long gone. I imagine a few of the children Pyle talks about are still living, but they would be at least 85. There's a line on p. 445: "And we were sad at leaving because, in the way of all things, no man knows but that this backward glance over the shoulder may be his last glance forever."
March 30, 2021
Edit: I did finish this book. Still a 5 for me
Not finished reading this yet, but...
I so enjoy this book! Written in the 1930's by journalist Ernie Pyle, this book is like Travels with Charlie. Except WAY better! Pyle travels the continent sharing his interactions with interesting people, experiences & occupations that most of us will never have an opportunity to do. Pyle's observations are wry & witty, & very readable. I love snapshot of life in the Americas in the 1930's. Travels in Ak & HI ( not states @ the time) & Canada, Mexico & Central America included.
Not finished reading this yet, but...
I so enjoy this book! Written in the 1930's by journalist Ernie Pyle, this book is like Travels with Charlie. Except WAY better! Pyle travels the continent sharing his interactions with interesting people, experiences & occupations that most of us will never have an opportunity to do. Pyle's observations are wry & witty, & very readable. I love snapshot of life in the Americas in the 1930's. Travels in Ak & HI ( not states @ the time) & Canada, Mexico & Central America included.
January 26, 2008
A great book, filled with terrific character studies. Today, Ernie Pyle is remembered mostly (if he's remembered at all) as a war correspondent. But the essays in this book (culled, I believe, from Pyle's output as a syndicated newspaper columnist) concern all manner of people and places throughout North America. Pyle was a first-class reporter, and wrote in a clean, conversational style that doesn't seem at all dated today.
October 4, 2009
Ernie Pyle travels America's back roads, and introduces us to the nation as it was on mainstreet - and oddball street -- in the 1930s. Former Slaves, gold miners, greasy spoon diners, and a trip to Hawaii's leper colony -- just part of what he gave readers in his columns that captured the mosaic of 30s America.
October 24, 2007
A good look at America's past. Real people who lived, worked, laughed and struggled every day in the 1930s are presented with that same familiar style as Pyle brought to his coverage of WWII GI's.
May 23, 2018
He’s such a great writer.
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February 8, 2018Although I had heard of Pyle as a war correspondent, I was surprised to learn that he spent the 30's traveling the country. He visited every state sending a column a day back to his paper. His descriptions, of the folks he met along the way, reveal that the people nearly 100 years ago were just like you and I.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews