> It got me wondering how many hard-boiled writers had
been in
>combat. Of course, in the fifties, nine out of ten
males over maybe
>thirty had been in the army. I was just curious if
it
>was known of how many, specifically, wrote as a way
of adjusting to civilian
>life.
Sorry, but I've been out of touch for a while. If someone has
already answered this, please forgive my repeating the
information. Hard-boiled writers with war records? Well,
Willeford was a genuine hero during World War II, racking up
a bunch of medals for his service as a tank commander during
the Battle of the Bulge, if memory serves correctly. As I
recall, he more or less rescued a number of trapped soldiers
single-handedly. He ended his memoir, SOMETHING ABOUT A
SOLDIER, before the beginning of the war. (I think it's an
excellent companion piece, as a portrait of the old
peace-time Army, for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.) Willeford never
talked about his own heroics much, as I understand it, and he
certainly never wrote about them, saying that all of that had
been adequately done by such writers as Jim Jones. I do,
however, remember Willeford's talking about sadistic American
GIs who used to offer to trade him bottles of liquor in
exchange for German POWs so they could take the Germans out
and shoot them for fun; you have to think the psychopathic
characters Junior and Freddy from the Hoke series must have
had their genesis in Willeford's exposure to such GIs.
Undoubtedly, the Army and World War II heightened Willeford's
appreciation for the absurd --- which, of course, is what
makes his writing great.
Kip
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