Only partially complete, this is a compendium of writers who fought/worked through a war in their writings, beginning with World War I and continuing through the current war in Iraq. I try to highlight the writer’s works that deal specifically with war, drawing upon his or her experiences in service as a soldier, doctor/medic, or war correspondent. All genres are represented — I’ve included poets, prose writers, memoirists, playwrights, screenwriters, and historians.
A COMPENDIUM OF VETERAN WRITERS
A M E R I C A N C I V I L W A R
Ambrose Bierce — US, Union Army’s 9th Indian Infantry Regiment — editorials, journalism, prose, satire — memoir What I Saw of Shiloh (1881) — wrote realistically of the terrible things of war in such stories as An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1891), The Boarded Window (1891), Killed at Resaca, and Chickamauga (1891)
W O R L D W A R I
Richard Aldington — British, Royal Sussex Regiment — poetry, fiction — novel Death of a Hero (1929)
Henri Barbusse — French, Army — prose — novel Le Feu (Under Fire)(1916) based on war experiences
Laurence Binyon — British, hospital orderly — poetry, drama — most famous poem, For the Fallen (1914), war memoir For Dauntless France (1918)
Edmund Blunden — British, second lieutenant in Royal Sussex Regiment — poetry, prose, criticism — Undertones of War (1928)
Vera Brittain — British, field nurse — memoir — Testament of Youth (1933)
Smedley D. Butler — US, Marines, Major General, Western Front, and many other conflicts, highly decorated — nonfiction — War is a Racket (1935) was written from his nationwide speaking tour calling attention to the dangers of military profiteering
e.e. cummings — US, Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, driver, prisoner of war — poet, prose — novel The Enormous Room (1922) about his imprisonment
Ford Madox Ford — British, War Propaganda Bureau — poet, critic, editor — The Good Soldier (1915) and Parade’s End tetraology (1924-28)
Robert Graves — British, Royal Welch Fusiliers — poetry — first volume of poems Over the Brazier (1916) about war — powerful autobiography Goodbye to All That (1929)
Jaroslav Hašek — Czech, Army, prisoner of war — prose, humor, satire — The Good Soldier Švejk and Other Strange Stories (Dobrý voják Švejk a jiné podivné historky)(1912) based on war experiences
Hemingway, far right, with photographer Robert Capa, far left
Ernest Hemingway — US, ambulance driver in the Italian Front — prose, journalism — Nobel Prize winner — A Farewell to Arms (1929) is semi-autobiographical based on his time in Italy
David Jones — British (Welsh), Royal Welch Fusiliers, Western Front — poetry — In Parenthesis (1937)
Ernst Junger — German, Imperial Army, Western Front — memoir — Storm of Steel (1920)
T.E. Lawrence — British, Army, lieutenant colonel, aircraftman, intelligence surveys — memoir —major work Seven Pillars of Wisdom an account of his war experiences — posthumous The Mint about his experiences as an enlisted man in the Royal Air Force
Emilio Lussu — Italy, Army — prose — Un anno sull’altipiano (A Year on the Plateau)(1938)
Wilfred Owen — British, Army, soldier, pacifist, killed in action – poetry — notable works include Dulce et Decorum Est (1917), Insensibility (1917), Anthem for Doomed Youth(1917), Futility (1918) and Strange Meeting (1918)
“I am furious with chagrin to think that the Minds which were to have excelled the civilization of ten thousand years are being annihilated – and bodies, the product of aeons of Natural Selection, melted down to pay for political statues.” — Wilfred Owen, in a letter to his mother
Erich Maria Remarque — German, Army, Western Front — prose — the antiwar All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) became an instant bestseller around the world, then banned in Germany
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon — British, officer in Royal Welch Fusiliers, in Western Front and Palestine — poetry, prose — after serving on the Western Front, made a public antiwar statement A Soldier’s Declaration (1917) — peace activist
Lajos Zilahy — Hungary, Army, Eastern Front — prose, plays — Two Prisoners (Két fogoly)(1931) — The Deserter (1932)
World War I Collections —
Jon Silkin, ed. Penguin Book of First World War Poetry. Penguin, 1997.
W O R L D W A R I I
Saul Bellow — US, merchant marine — prose — winner of Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, National Medal of Arts, National Book Award — first novel Dangling Man (1944) about a young man waiting to be drafted
Joseph Heller — US, Army Air Corps, bombadier of the Italian Front — prose, plays, satire — Catch-22 (1961) about American servicemen during the war, one of the great literary works of the twentieth century
James Jones — US, Army, 25th Infantry Division, Guadalcanal — prose — From Here to Eternity (1952) based on Company E — The Thin Red Line (1962) based upon combat in Guadalcanal
Mailer
Norman Mailer — US, Army, Philippines, 112th Cavalry — prose, journalism, essay, poetry, plays, screenplays — winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award — The Naked and The Dead (1948) based on his experiences in the Philippines
Curzio Malaparte — Italian, Fifth Alpine Regiment — prose, journalism, plays — war novel-essay Viva Caporetto! (1921) — Kaputt (1944) — The Skin (1949)
William Manchester — US, Marine Corps, Pacific theater — memoir — Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War (1980) was outstanding
Audie Murphy — US, Army, European Theater — memoir — To Hell and Back (1949) was a national best-seller
Irwin Shaw — US, Army, warrant officer — plays, screenplays, prose — first play Bury the Dead (1936) and first novel The Young Lions (1949) both based on war experiences
Josef Škvorecký — Czechoslovak, Army — prose — The Engineer of Human Souls (1984), The Republic of Whores (1995), The Bass Saxophone (1967) — founded 68 Publishers press and encouraged many dissident Czech writers
Gore Vidal — US, Army, Transportation Corps, Warrant Officer — prose, plays, essays, screenwriting – his first novel Williwaw (1946) was the first novel about WWII — Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace (2002)
Vonnegut’s letter home after being captured as POW
Kurt Vonnegut — US, Army, private, 423rd Infantry Regiment, prisoner of war — prose, satire, gallows humor, science fiction — famous and popular novel Slaughterhouse-Five informed by his time as a soldier and POW
Richard Wilbur — US, Army — poetry, literary translations — former Poet Laureate and winner of National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry — The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems (1947) based on his war experiences
Howard Zinn — US — bombardier (over Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France) — history, plays, memoir — notable selections include Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967), A People’s History of the United States (1980, finalist for the National Book Award in 1981), You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train (1994), Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence (1995)
World War II Collections —
Harvey Shapiro, ed. Poets of World War II. New American Library, 2003.
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K O R E A
James Salter — US, Air Force, 1st Lieutenant, combat pilot with 6th Troop Carrier Squadron — prose — winner of PEN/Faulkner Award — The Hunters (1957) — The Arm of Flesh (1961)
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V I E T N A M
John Balaban — US, International Voluntary Service worker, conscientious objector — poetry, memoir, translations — twice nominated for National Book Award — best known for Remembering Heaven’s Face: Moral Witness in Vietnam
Robert Olen Butler — US, Army, sergeant in Army Military Intelligence Corps, counter-intelligence special agent, translator — prose — his Viet Nam-centered collection of stories, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for fiction
Philip Caputo — US, Marines, Infantry lieutenant, war correspondent — memoir, journalism, prose — best-selling memoir A Rumor of War (1977) — also published another memoir and four novels
Louis Peter Cimino — US, Army — plays — Fragging (1997)
Richard Currey — US, Navy, corpsman — poetry, prose — Crossing Over: The Vietnam Stories (1980) — Fatal Light (1988) about the war is his best known novel
Đặng Thùy Trâm — Viet Nam, Viet Cong, battlefield surgeon — memoir — diary collection Last Night I Dreamed of Peace (2007) translated widely and made into film Đừng Đốt (Don’t Burn It) (2009)
W. D. Ehrhart — US, Marine Corps, Infantry Sergeant — poetry, memoir, prose — selections include A Generation of Peace (1975), Vietnam-Perkasie: A Combat Marine Memoir (1983), Carrying the Darkness: Poetry of the Vietnam War (1985), Going Back: An Ex-Marine Returns to Vietnam (1987), Passing Time: Memoir of a Vietnam Veteran Against the War (1989)
Dan Guenther — US, Marine Corps, captain — poetry, prose — China Wind (1990), Dodge City Blues (2007), and Townsend’s Solitaire ( 2008) — trilogy of novels based on his experiences in Viet Nam — collection of poetry, The Crooked Truth (2010)
Joe Haldeman — US, Army, combat engineer, wounded in combat — prose, sci fi — first novel was War Year (1972) — best known for The Forever War (1974), a sci-fi book that has sold over a million copies, winning both the Hugo and Nebula Awards
Gustav Hasford — US, Marine Corps, combat correspondent — prose — semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers (1979) was basis for the film Full Metal Jacket
Le Ly Hayslip’s family
Le Ly Hayslip — Viet Nam, Viet Cong, lookout — memoir — When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (1989) adapted for film by Oliver Stone (also on this list)
Larry Heinemann — US, Army, 25th Infantry — prose, memoir — first novel Close Quarters (1977); novel Paco’s Story (1987) which won the National Book Award; memoir Black Virgin Mountain (2005) — he refers to these as his ‘accidental’ trilogy on the war
“Any soldier returning home must rediscover his humanity and establish a livable peace with the discovered, liberated, permanently dark places in his own heart — the darkness that is always with us.” — Larry Heinemann
Michael Herr — US, war correspondent — journalism, memoir, screenplays — Dispatches (1977) is his acclaimed gonzo journalist memoir about Viet Nam — co-wrote Full Metal Jacket screenplay
David Huddle — US, Army, military intelligence specialist — poetry, essay, prose — novel The Story of a Million Years (1999)
James Janko — US, Army, medic, 25th Infantry — prose — novel Buffalo Boy and Geronimo (2006) won the Northern California Book Award and nominated for Pulitzer Prize
Wayne Karlin — US, Marine Corps, sergeant – prose, nonfiction — novels: Marble Mountain (2009), The Wished-For Country (2002), Prisoners (2000), Lost Armies (1988), The Extras (1989), Us (1993), and Crossover (1984) — three works of creative non-fiction: Rumors and Stones (1996), War Movies: Journeys to Vietnam (2005), and Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Dead and the Living in Viet Nam (2009)
Yusuf Komunyakaa — US, Army, correspondence editor for the Army newspaper — poet — winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for poetry — two collections chronicle his war experiences, Toys in a Field (1987) and Dien Cai Dau (1988) — the latter, which won the Dark Room Poetry Prize, means “crazy in the head” in Vietnamese
“I think of all war writing as anti-war. And that’s what interests me: The fact that one has captured the spirit of that intense, brutal moment, and try to make some sense out of it.” — Yusef Komunyakaa
Ron Kovic — US, Marine Corps — memoir — Born on the Fourth of July made into screenplay, then received Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay — peace activist
Robert S. McKelvey — US, Marine Corps, Captain — nonfiction — The Dust of Life: America’s Children Abandoned in Vietnam (1999) about Amerasian orphans fathered by US soldiers during the war — A Gift of Barbed Wire: America’s Allies Abandoned in South Vietnam (2002)
Marilyn McMahon — US, Navy, nurse at Da Nang Naval Hospital — poet — anthologized in The Vietnam War in American Stories, Songs and Poems, Visions of War, Dreams of Peace, and Writing Between the Lines: An Anthology on War and Social Consequences
Bảo Ninh — Viet Nam, North, Glorious 27th Youth Brigade — prose — Thân Phận Của Tình Yêu (The Destiny of Love) (1991) — English translation as The Sorrow of War (1994)
Tim O’Brien in Viet Nam, 1969
Tim O’Brien — US, Army, infantry sergeant — prose — his mostly-autobiographical The Things They Carried (1990) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize — his other novels include If I Die in a Combat Zone (Box Me Up and Ship Me Home) (1975), Going After Cacciato (1978, won 1979 National Book Award), Northern Lights (1975), In the Lake of the Woods, The Nuclear Age (1979), and Tomcat in Love (1998) — his story “The Things They Carried” included in the Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike
Laura Palmer — US, war correspondent — journalism, poetry, nonfiction — nominated for Pulitzer Prize for her syndicated column, Welcome Home, about coming to terms with the Vietnam War — best known for Shrapnel in the Heart, the stories behinds letters and poems left at the Vietnam Veterans memorial in Washington DC
Mary Reynolds Powell — US, Army, Nurse Corps — nonfiction — A World of Hurt: Between Innocence and Arrogance in Vietnam (2000)
David Rabe — US, Army — plays, screenplays — known for his loose trilogy of plays drawing on his experiences as an Army draftee, Sticks and Bones (1969), the Tony Award-winning The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1971), and Streamers (1976) — also wrote the screenplay for the dramatic film Casualties of War (1989)
Al Santoli — US, Army — nonfiction — edited Everything We Had: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Thirty-three American Soldiers Who Fought It (1981) and To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Americans and Southeast Asians (1985)
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough — US, Army, nurse — prose, sci fi — the Nebula Award-winning novel Healer’s War (1988) draws on her experiences as a nurse in Vietnam
Neil Sheehan — US, war correspondent — nonfiction — A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (1988) won Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award
Oliver Stone — US, Army, 25th Infantry Division — screenwriter — wrote three films about Viet Nam: Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and Heaven & Earth (1993) and he has called these films a trilogy, though they each deal with different aspects of the war — Platoon is a semi-autobiographical film about his experience in combat
Robert Stone — US, war correspondent — prose — wrote novel Dog Soldiers (1974) about a journalist smuggling heroin from Viet Nam, which won National Book Award
Wallace Terry — US, war correspondent, Saigon Bureau Chief for Time — history — Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (1984)
Claude AnShin Thomas — US, Army, helicopter crew chief — memoir, pilgrimages — “Finding Peace after a Lifetime of War” (1996) in Arnold Kotler’s Engaged Buddhist Reader — excellent memoir At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace (2004) — founder of Zaltho Foundation
Charley Trujillo — US, Army — nonfiction — Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam (1990)
‘A Soldier’s Joy’ – Tobias Wolff’s 1985 article in ‘Esquire’
Tobias Wolff — US, Army, Special Forces — prose — his novella The Barracks Thief (1984, winner of Pen-Faulker Award) about paratrooper training graduates awaiting their report to Viet Nam — the recommended memoir In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994, finalist for the National Book Award) records his tour in Viet Nam
Bruce Weigl — US, Army — poet — his collections addressing Vietnam include The Monkey Wars (1984), Song of Napalm (1988), and Declension in the village of Chung Luong (2006)
Stephen Wright — US, Army — fiction — his war-related novel Meditations in Green (1983) won the Maxwell Perkins Prize for promising first novels
Collections —
Philip Mahony, ed. From Both Sides Now: The Poetry of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath. NY: Scribner, 1998.
P E R S I A N G U L F W A R
Gabe Hudson — US, Marines, rifleman — prose — his debut collection of stories, Dear Mr. President (2003)
Swofford
Anthony Swofford — US, Marines, Scout sniper, Lance Corporal — memoirist — Jarhead (2003) won Pacific Northwest Bookseller Associations Award, PEN/Martha Albrand Art of the Memoir Award, and Michener-Copernicus Society of America Fiction Fellowship
Joel Turnipseed — US, Marines — memoir — Baghdad Express (2003)
I R A Q
Mark Boal — US, journalist embedded with US bomb squad — screenwriter — The Hurt Locker (2008), winner of six Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay
Colby Buzzell — US, Army, machine gunner — blog, memoir — best-selling author of My War: Killing Time in Iraq (2005)
John Crawford — US, National Guard — memoir — bestselling author of The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier’s Account of the War in Iraq (2005)
Nathaniel Fick — US, Marine Corps, Captain, platoon commander — memoir — One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer (2005)
Jeff Key — US, Marines — plays — The Eyes of Babylon: One Marine’s Journey about serving as a gay soldier in Iraq — created Mehadi Foundation (uses writing workshops and other creative activities to help Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffering from PTSD) — on Board of Directors for Iraq Veterans Against the War
Phil Klay — US, Marines, second lieutenant — fiction — Redeployment won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction — stories appear in collections, including The Best American Non-Required Reading 2012 (Mariner Books) and Fire and Forget (Da Capo Press, 2013)
James Mathews — US, Air National Guard — prose — short story collection Last Known Position (2008) won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Short Fiction
Steven McLaughlin — British, Army, combat infantryman — memoir — Squaddie: A Soldier’s Story (2006)
Turner
Brian Turner — US, Army, infantry team leader — poetry — his debut collection Here, Bullet (2005) garnered nine major literary awards, including Lannan Literary Fellowship, NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry, Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, and a Beatrice Hawley Award — collection Phantom Noise (2010), about bringing the war home, shortlisted for the 2010 TS Eliot Prize
Collections spanning multiple wars —
Maxine Hong Kingston, ed. Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, Koa Books, 2006.
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Please comment below to suggest additions or changes to this list. Thanks for your contributions.
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Writing Through The Wounds of War 