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An engaging collection of letters from a young Canadian officer, native to Toronto. His letters begin in late 1915 on the journey across the Atlantic to the European battlefield. He is filled with worldly-wonder and naiveté as he encounters figures as diverse as Colonels to French peasants, and recounts the daily trials and tribulations of the soldiers life in Belgium with wit; for example, he describes his batman as “a soldier paid by you to be absent when you want him.” Particularly interesting is the tone of the narrative in which he attempts to educate his mother of life in the army, and in tone, cheerful beyond modern cyncism. Collected and posthumously published by his mother, they make for a gripping and atmospheric read. Author — Anon “Billy” Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in Toronto, McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916. Original Page Count – 175 pages.
Further letters from the Front, continuing on from “A Sunny Subaltern, Billy’s Letters from Flanders.” The young Canadian officer continues his adventures, in and out of the trenches. He begins with a quick note to his mother to confirm that he was recovering well from shrapnel wounds in London. After a brief convalescence, he is back in the thick of the fighting, sending one letter to his mother postmarked “In the Field (of mud)”. His naiveté of the first volume is still evident, but is beginning to wane as he becomes almost fatalist in tone toward the later part of the book. In hospital once again with appendicitis, he emotionally recounts his meetings with the many casualties with him, including those gassed and blinded. His letters are packed with the details of his service such as dug-outs, observation posts and the “dreary ditch known as ‘The line.’”. His letters offer a fascinating insight into the First World War at the Front. Collected and posthumously published by his mother, they make for a gripping and atmospheric read. Author — Anon “Billy” Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in Toronto, McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1917. Original Page Count – 121 pages.
Although the United States did not enter the First World War until April 1917, Canada enlisted the moment Great Britain engaged in the conflict in August 1914. The Canadian contribution was great, as more than 600,000 men and women served in the war effort—400,000 of them overseas—out of a population of 8 million. More than 150,000 were wounded and nearly 67,000 gave their lives. The war was a pivotal turning point in the history of the modern world, and its mindless slaughter shattered a generation and destroyed seemingly secure values. The literature that the First World War generated, and continues to generate so many years later, is enormous and addresses a multitude of cultural and social matters in the history of Canada and the war itself. Although many scholars have brilliantly analyzed the literature of the war, little has been done to catalog the writings of ordinary participants: men and women who served in the war and wrote about it but are not included among well-known poets, novelists, and memoirists. Indeed, we don’t even know how many titles these people published, nor do we know how many more titles were added later by relatives who considered the recollections or collected letters worthy of publication. Brian Douglas Tennyson’s The Canadian Experience of the Great War: A Guide to Memoirs is the first attempt to identify all of the published accounts of First World War experiences by Canadian veterans.