The Book of War Letters: 100 Years of Private Canadian Correspondence

Grescoe, Paul; Grescoe, Audrey (compiled and Edited by)

ISBN 10: 1551991055 / ISBN 13: 9781551991054

Published by McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2003

About this Item

455pp. Light soil to outer edges. DJ has light edge/rub wear and light creasing. Actual book for sale pictured. 16 x 23.6 x 3.5cm, wt1Kg Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Seller Inventory # 016549

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Book of War Letters: 100 Years of Private Canadian Correspondence
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1551991055
• ISBN 13: 9781551991054
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: VG
• Dust Jacket Condition: VG
• Seller catalogs:
  • War

About this title

Synopsis

The second volume in a 3-book series

Duress – the extreme experience war produces – brings out the most remarkable human qualities, and letters written in wartime contain some of the most intense emotion imaginable. This anthology includes letters that date as far back as the Boer War (which began in 1899) and extend up to 2002, when Canadian peacekeepers served in Afghanistan. Between are letters from the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and a number of peacekeeping missions. It contains some of the most powerful writing that Canadians – whether reassuring loved ones, recounting the bitter reality of battle, or describing the appalling conditions of combat–have ever committed to the page.

The letters Canadians have written during wartime are proud and self-deprecating, stoic and complaining, brave and fearful, tender and violent, funny and poignant. The Book of War Letters tells us something about what it means to be Canadian, and what it means to be alive.

About the Author

Audrey Grescoe has been a freelance journalist and a newspaper and magazine editor; more recently she has written books on travel and nature.

Paul Grescoe has contributed to most of the major Canadian magazines and has also written books, including detective novels and The Merchants of Venus, about the Harlequin publishing empire. They live on Bowen Island, near Vancouver, B.C.