A Better Legend: From the World War II Letters of Jack and Jane Poulton

ISBN 10: 0813914256 / ISBN 13: 9780813914251

Published by Univ of Virginia Pr, 1993

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Better Legend: From the World War II Letters of Jack and Jane Poulton
• Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813914256
• ISBN 13: 9780813914251
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

In the spring of 1987, a few weeks after her husband's death, Jane Weaver Poulton was rummaging through the sea chest Jack made on Tulagi Island and found a mass of letters she had thought lost many years before - letters she and Jack had written to each other during World War II, when he was stationed in the South Pacific. Out of a correspondence comprising more than five hundred letters, she crafted A Better Legend - a title she takes from the saying that lovers make better legends than heroes do.
This personal account, Mrs. Poulton tells us, is "not a 'war' book in the sense of blood and battles, but the story of two people separated for three years of the war except for two brief leaves. Many marriages were wrecked by this, but in our case we came to a better understanding of ourselves and our marriage." Warm and engaging, the letters offer not only a privileged glimpse of the developing relationship of a couple in their twenties, but also a portrait of American society in the 1940s. For readers in our less gracious time, the maturity and civility shown by the young Poultons are striking indeed.
The letters reveal Jane Poulton's quiet evolution from protected housewife to independent working woman and civil rights activist. Jack's letters show his increasing confidence as an engineer and give his thoughtful observations of the war. As Jane Poulton writes in her preface to the book, "War brings out the best and worst in us; and legends are created not always on the battlefield." A Better Legend should appeal to anyone interested in an accessible account of recent world - and domestic - history.