Herbert Corey's Great War: A Memoir of World War I by the American Reporter Who Saw It All

Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2022 Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA. 2022. Softcover/Trade Wraps. Edition/Printing not stated / Print on Demand. Book is tight, square, and unmarked. Book Condition: Near Fine; light edge bumping; bumping to textblock bottom edge. No DJ. Pictorial card stock wraps. Wraps are not bent or folded; spine is not creased or split; text is secure in binding. 220 pp 8vo. In 1914, the Associated Newspapers sent correspondent Herbert Corey to Europe on the day Great Britain declared war on Germany. During the Great War that followed, Corey reported from France, Britain, and Germany, visiting the German lines on both the western and eastern fronts. He also reported from Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, and Serbia. When the Armistice was signed in November 1918, Corey defied the rules of the American Expeditionary Forces and crossed into Germany. He covered the Paris Peace Conference the following year. No other foreign correspondent matched the longevity of his reporting during World War I. Until recently, however, his unpublished memoir lay largely unnoticed among his papers in the Library of Congress. With publication of his memoir the coeditors reestablished Corey’s name in the annals of American war reporting. He writes about the American foot soldier, about troops on the other side, and about noncombatants. He writes of the obstacles reporters faced in conveying the story of the Great War to Americans and displays his ambivalence regarding the entry of the United States into the war. His idiosyncratic, opinionated, and very American voice makes for compelling reading. A clean very presentable copy.