Never-before-published fiction by one of the finest war authors of the
20th century
In 1943, a young soldier named James Jones returned from the Pacific,
lightly wounded and psychologically tormented by the horrors of
Guadalcanal. When he was well enough to leave the hospital, he went AWOL
rather than return to service, and began work on a novel of the World
War II experience.
Jones's AWOL period was brief, but he returned to the novel at war's
end, bringing him to the attention of Maxwell Perkins, the legendary
editor of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. Jones would then go
on to write From Here to Eternity, the National Book Award-winning novel
that catapulted him into the ranks of the literary elite.
Now, for the first time, Jones's earliest writings are presented here,
as a collection of stories about man and war, a testament to the great
artist he was about to become.