WWII Notebook & Letters: Written By James C. Hinkle Transcribed Verbatim By

By Dallas Ann H. Erwood

WWII Notebook & Letters by James C. Hinkle, transcribed verbatim by Dallas Ann H. Erwood, starts in August 1943 with the notebook in which he records his thoughts while on a troop transport to North Africa. Letters home to his family start in September '43 and continue through December 1945, including the Anzio letter dated June 28, 1944, describing his participation in the epic battle as "the most dramatic hours of my life." The rest of '44 and all of '45 he writes about his recovery, his nurse Dallas Fellersen, his fellow soldiers and his experiences in Europe. Physically limited due to his wound at Anzio, he's assigned a rear echelon position collecting information, updating an enormous map showing the current status of the various battles and fronts, writing a report every day to be passed up the chain of command and giving a 15-minute report to the camp regarding the latest news. He also runs the school for soldiers in transit looking to learn a language or whatever he can find for anybody to learn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Feb 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781684716357

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Erwood

Copyright © 2020 Dallas Ann H. Erwood.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-6847-1636-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6847-1635-7 (e)

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date:  02/05/2020

DEDICATION

To: Monique, Danielle, Jake, Holly, Shannon, Hillary,

Grant, Mitchell, Louie, Melody & Hudson

Jim's decendents

So far

PREFACE

This series of three books is comprised of my Dad's letters that he wrote home to his parents and uncle during WWII, 1943, 1944, and 1945. He asked his parents to save his letters and we, (his 7 children), got them upon his mother's death in the late 1980's.

Our dad died suddenly in December of 1990 at the age of 66 of a heart attack.

His first born, Lon, named after my dad's grandfather Leonides's nickname Lon, got the original saved letters. In about 2008, Lon contacted me because my namesake, my dad's nurse in WWII, Dallas Fellersen, was mentioned in a letter dated February 10, 1945.

I always wanted to write a book about my namesake, something along the lines of an epic WWII love story about how a soldier met a nurse and love grew, et cetera. I thought I would read my dad's letters and begin to write upon my retirement in 2017. I was a court reporter and proficient with the stenograph machine, so after my retirement I started to transcribe my dad's letters verbatim. Lon had sent all his brothers and sisters copies of the letters for the year 1945. I took to transcribing those letters and lo and behold, hundreds of pages later, I had my book!

My dad survived the war to become an English professor at San Diego State University. He loved to write and could do so very well. Unlike me. So I thought I'd let him tell the story I wanted to tell, and here it is!

Then I discovered there was a journal from 1943 that he'd written during the troop transport to North Africa and more letters, and then more letters throughout the years 1944 and 1945 wherein he describes fighting, getting shot and recovering, and working and living in Europe.

His letters were mostly handwritten and his handwriting was hard to decipher sometimes, hence I thought I'd make a relatively easy-to-read tome containing all his correspondence. It's so honest, so very first-person, and too well written to pass up. I figured at the very least his family would want it, not to mention his Faulkner aficionado friends and The Hemingway Society associates

So that is how these books came to be. I hope you enjoy his fresh 19-, 20- and 21-year-old frankness, his open mind, and his love for his parents, his war buddies and his nurse.

As fate would have it, I was able to track down Dallas Fellersen's family in the town next door to mine. In 2008, I was driving down the local highway and I saw a Tarbell Realtor billboard with a photo of a man named Grant Fellersen so I made contact with his 92-year-old dad and his wife and I introduced myself as being named after Dallas Fellersen who'd been married to his brother.

The year before my dad died in 1990, he told me the story of Dallas Fellersen, his nurse in WWII and my namesake, and he said the last he'd heard she was a school nurse in the Sacramento area. I called Information in Sacramento and got her nephew who said she'd recently passed away.

So the man on the billboard could've been that nephew!

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Dallas Fellersen

This is who I am named for

Dallas Fellersen was her name

My dad's nurse in the Second World War

Apparently she was quite a dame

She washed him & would walk him

Around the gardens and the lagoon

After being shot through the shoulder

At the Anzio invasion with his platoon

She was a redhead who had freckles

And could definitely get a tan

She proved a memorable concord

To my father as a young man

After going through a crate full

Of correspondence home to his Ma

I will be eternally grateful

I wasn't named after Helga!

Or Dini

Or Argia

Or Marylou

For crying out loud!

I'd love to have been named Nancy

After the girl who got him eventually

His parents preferred her for him

And he placed stock in their opinion

So, children, listen to your parents!

And correspond on a regular basis

200 letters, 400 pages, over three years

Sufficient to quiet all of their fears.

- Dallas Ann H. Erwood

… an interesting but time-consuming task.

- James C. Hinkle

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Sample of Jim’s handwriting at its most readable.

BOOK 1

WWII NOTEBOOK

& LETTERS

1943

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Tuesday, August 11, 1943

Address:   Co K, 16 Battalion, 4 Regiment, Camp Shenango, Pennsylvania

I was placed on a shipping order this morning. Was working in the supply room at the time and the lieutenant calling out the names couldn't figure where my answer was coming from. My name was the first on the list and was the only H. The other H's were on another list called yesterday. That seems to indicate my reclassification as a code clerk is beginning to take some effect — although those who are on the same list as I are far from mental giants — all, that is, except August Lorenzini. Gus was a senior drama major at Illinois State Normal Teacher's College. Short, blond, he looks old when he wears a fatigue hat. Opens his mouth wide sometimes before he talks. Is completely at ease when talking. Had his own 15 minute program on radio reading poems. Reads plays whenever he reads. — Something like John Haldi will be when he grows up. Can remember and tell very well bits from plays, shows, and poems that he has read or seen. — Benchley on what he learned in college: Soph — 6 hours sleep a night isn't really important, Jr — 4 hours sleep a night isn't really important, Sr — sleep really isn't necessary. About Gus again – he doesn't appear to be lazy; he just doesn't believe in over exerting himself physically. Wants to direct the stage of some liberal arts college. Of course, I played up Denison to him. He says he is going back to Normal for his last semester. He says the adjustment would be easier to make there. Then he is going either to Iowa or Yale for graduate work in drama – probably to Iowa because they have the top drama school in the country and often try new plays that are scheduled for Broadway to see how they go over and what needs changing.

He gave me an idea. Maybe it would be better to go back to Denison to graduate than to go to Yale – or Harvard. Rationalizing, there would be several advantages to going back to Granville.

1) I could still be a Sigma Chi and live in the house.

2) It would give me a much better chance to find a girl of the age and type I would like to marry – providing Dinny and Marylou (or visa versa) are in the background by then. After reading in Will Durnat's Mansions of Philosophy the desirability of marrying while young together with the intensity of my present desire, I think I will be more than ready to get married soon after the war. I would not want to get married while at Denison – it would spoil the fun – but would have no objection to going to Harvard or Yale and be married. I think I could make a little money being an assistant and by writing a little. My wife could work at something and we could get along — I think.

3) It would give me another year of eligibility for golf, baseball, debate, etc (the etc being whatever else I learn to do before going back). I would not have a chance at baseball at Yale or Harvard and I would really like to get a letter in baseball in addition to golf. Don't think I would join the D Association if I get a letter. Paddling is all right for those who want it, but I don't go for it.

4) I still have a chance for Phi Betta Kappa at Denison. It takes 75 hours of A in 7 semesters, and average of not quite 11 per semester. I have 3, 6, & 11 or 20 in 3. That leaves 55 in 4 or an average of 14 (almost) per semester. That would not be too difficult and would be a real test for me. One thing is certain, either I make good enough grades to make Phi Beta or I won't care at all about grades and just try to learn whatever and all I can. Making an A- average would mean nothing if the school had a Phi Beta chapter and I didn't make it.

5) Entering a big eastern school as a sophomore from the mid-west would make it almost impossible for me to get to the top in the paper, for instance, and socially — no Sigma Chi there. At Denison I could play golf, baseball, fraternity basketball, ping-pong, debate and speak, run the paper, get in Tau Kappa Alpha, Pi Delta Epsilon, contribute to and possibly run the Portfolio, write on the side, play bridge, have time to be at the top socially, be able to study, read, make good grades, get to know Champ Ward, Danner Mahood, & Miss Shannon, possibly find the girl I want to marry, possibly make Blue Key or ODK, would make a lot more good friends, many of them from near Canton, would not be too far from home, and it would be cheaper. There would be less chance of my becoming so interested in my work that I would drop everything else. There are plenty of courses I want to take there. Possibly I would not learn as much as at Harvard or Yale from the books or from the professors, but then I most certainly intend to take graduate work in one of the two and it might be a good idea to get more of other things before I start in on that all too narrow tangent. At least it would postpone running the risk of being a Harvard Man with his supercilious air, condescending look, and broad A's.

6) It would be a challenge that I have never met before. When I left school I was just reaching the top. I had convinced Red that I could pitch, but I had not proved it by winning games. I was on the golf team but the season hadn't started. I was to be editor of the paper next year (so I was told) but I hadn't proved that I could successfully run the paper. I had made one popular contribution to the Portfolio but I hadn't repeated it with others. My creative writing professor told me I had more talent than anyone she had ever instructed, but she had known me only a short time and some of the work she saw was, to say the least, derivative. I had 3 girls fall in love with me, but I left before I knew whether I would be content with and be able to hold the one I thought I wanted. In other words, I have reached the goals and standards which I set, but would I have been able to carry on successfully at the top? Could I continue to make A's? Maybe it is worth going back to Denison just to get an answer to that question. Maybe my happiness, ambition, and ability lies in the attaining rather than the mastery of a goal. It would be well to know that. Harvard or Yale would be just another struggle, and if I did reach the top, it would be at the very end of my time there and I still would not know. Of course there is the other side to the question – but that will wait till another day — until I have read several books on the famous eastern schools and see just what their authors think of Harvard and Yale. The books I mean are autobiographies and novels, not college comparisons or Are You Going to College? books.

Possibly the Yacht Club could be reopened. With enough people it would not cost very much.

My name is Erol Flynn. What's your hobby?

Won 7 dollars playing poker today. It was the first time I played since my money was taken in Camp Robinson – about 2 months ago. – Dime limit.

Talked with the librarian, George Sherman from Cleveland, for about an hour and showed him the memory trick. He said I could apply for library work if I wanted it. Also, he said to write to the chief librarians of the service commands to find what was to be done with all the army's books after the war. Possibly I could get some of them without being too expensive.

Must get away tomorrow to a phone and let Mother & Daddy know that I probably won't be here to see them Sunday. I tried tonight but couldn't get the call through. I hope they can come before Sunday. I want my tennis shoes and The Web and the Rock. Want to send back what is left of my civilian clothes and several books. Nothing new to tell them.

Letter from Dinny today. She seems to be getting better. Want to send her the Thurber and Steig books. If only I could get her off my mind everything would be so much clearer – but I can't.

Read Mod on the Stars by Huie. Very powerful and very much like me. Written entirely in short crisp sentences like a good news summary. It is certainly worth having. Maybe Daddy would like it. I don't know. It is crude in parts but that does not seem to detract. Addy is very much like Dinny might have been had Denison not been as old-maidish as it is — which is a good thing, I guess. I am afraid Huie failed to have the reader complete the patriotism to cynicism to patriotism cycle that Garth did. My sympathies did not quite come back to the present way of doing things. Maybe I was prejudiced, but also Huie did not do as well in that part. – A very gripping book for someone who is interested in which way Americans and America. It convinced me of one thing — that mans' life goes by stages and that everyone goes through the same stages, no matter how much he tells himself he will not. Before me I seem to still have delusion, marriage, a turn from cynicism, a lessening of ambition, and a final resignation. I refuse to believe it – but still, the stages which I have already gone through I would have said were ridiculous a year before they occurred.

Must look up how to spell occurred, how to spell and pronounce grievous, and how to pronounce address.

Must write Cpt. Kay, Charles, Dick, and Nancy – after having waited until I have something to say and not feel ashamed of being in school when her father is in the army. Maybe she would like Denison.

Letter from Margaret Looser (the girl on the train). It was sent to me, Camp Robinson, BIRTC. I must have made quite an impression, for she said she was sending me a picture of herself. She also said I was conceited. How to answer?

Maybe Mary Jane Blaumeiser would send me her picture. I certainly should write to her. I treated her worse than any other girl and she didn't deserve it.

Mary Lou Dyer sent me a big box of cookies. There were plenty for the whole barracks and they were good. Wrote a long letter and thanked her for them and told her about the army. Nothing about us. It made me feel like a heel, writing only when she sends me something.

Should write to Kenny, too. – And Arline. — And John.

Long letter from Billy Williams. He is becoming a truck driver even in spirit and language. He sent the math books earlier in the week. As soon as I finish Mansions of Philosophy I will start on Mathematics and the Imagination. — It was the most interesting letter I have received. He talked about himself, me, and rambled thoughts of Denison. – Just realized, when I think of Denison I don't think of classes or girls or golf or the paper. I think of Billy and Dick and of Butchy and Amoeba. Friends after all are the major thing – or am I wrong again? Billy is one of the best fellows I will ever know. Answered his letter.

Have 72 dollars. Owe Mother & Daddy 30 plus 5 for the books from Canterbury. Will have 37 left – which will be very good.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 12

Have spent the last 4 nights at the camp library looking through all of their books. Made a list of those I would like to buy and read. It might not be a bad idea to send $10 every month to Mrs. Joy and have her send either to me or home the books that I order. Mrs. Joy would be better than Canterbury, I think. She would take a greater personal interest and would be much more likely to give me some sort of discount. Maybe I should get an allotment from my pay sent each month to her. That way I would be sure of having the books after the war. Any book worth reading is worth having.

Found out some more things about Harvard and Yale. Harvard is much older, has twice the enrollment — 9,000 to 4500, has had 1500 in Who's Who to Yale's 1,000. They are first & second in Who's Who. The ratio of authors in Who's Who is 3 to 1 in favor of Harvard. The Yale product is not thought to be as individualized and typed as that of Harvard.

Would like to write and get letters from some prominent men like Edward Bok. Think I will start with Lloyd Douglas. Would like mostly authors.

Things I have resolved to learn to do as quickly as possible — even though it cannot be until I get back to school:

1) Learn to dance

2) Play the piano

3) Play tennis well

4) Smoke a pipe in an effort to give up cigarettes. A pipe looks better, anyhow.

5) Give mathematics and science a fair and intensive trial. That won't have to wait.

Gus — My brother is a 4-F. He works in the state health department.

Should write to Dr. Wilson, Kleymyers, Champ Ward, Danner Mahood, Miss Shannon, Dr. Crocker, & Miss Willett. Also to Bruce Brickels, Howard Webb, Dave Allison, Al Miller, & Skippy. — And to Miss Vogelgesung. And to Aunt Ora, Betty, Uncle Charley. And to Eddie Holtz. And to Neena. And to Mrs. King.

Will learn to play bridge much better, too. I felt like a fool playing with the McKowns.

I see the Atlantic Monthly has a 50 dollar prize contest for the best essay, short story, and poem by college students. I wish I had known about it before. Will try when I get out.

Will learn to ride, too.

Just found out that today is Thursday and not Wednesday. That, of course, makes yesterday Wednesday. Time means nothing in the army. Each day is the same.

Called Mother and she and Daddy are coming this evening.

Should write Mrs. Thurin and Mrs. Wolfe and Mrs. Harrington. Send her a bridge book.

Read some criticisms of Thomas Wolfe. All seem to think his work was unorganized, vulgar, at times brilliant. They must have been very practical critics, for to me, in spite of no plot, his books all have unity. Possibly only one who is also searching desperately for an unfound door, a wall, a word, the key — can understand. But he is examining everything, searching everything, missing no one or no place in an effort to find a clue to why, where, and when. The books are all with the same driving passion and motive.

Letters from Mother. She sent the small pictures. I will write Sgt. Polonsky and see if he can send one of them with my West Point application. Also I owe him an explanation. I should write to Sgt. Segal, too.

Reading Wolfe gave me an idea for writing to Marylou. Using the search for a door and wall as a very corny background, I told her completely just what seeing her at Swarthmore meant to me. A new world of emotions and feelings that were spontaneous and not mentally directed and controlled. Also that man does not live by and for himself alone, that the world has a stake in him, that a girl will some day be an equal part of him. It is not weakness to depend on and have faith in a girl. It is rather completing a whole, making each stronger by uniting and thereby creating increased power from the inspired and consolidated efforts and energies of both.

If in one day I could learn so much from her after just going along for 3 years, is it any wonder that I thought she was so different? I went to see her with the idea of telling her, as gently as possible, that she and I were too far apart to ever be together. But we weren't too far apart. Now I have two on my hands and mind instead of one. I know she felt the same way I did when I left. Her legs collapsed when she started walking so she must have been considerably affected. She told me — more than that — that she wanted to marry me, but I still am waiting to see how she reacts to the three letters. Whatever she writes, my letters to her from now on will be plain and unemotional. I have said all that I want to say. It will be better just to let things rest as they are. If I can get someplace where I can get a pass, I would like to see her again. I hope I can stop next time where time made us stop the last. Before I would have had no doubt. Now I don't know.

Writing makes thoughts so much clearer. It makes them cold, but still they can be organized on paper and not so well in the mind.

Gus talks with his eyes. When he is going to say something funny he smiles first, says it with a straight face, and smiles again afterward.

Found out from a boy who lives in California that Pasadena is largely being taken over by wealthy negroes. And from Huie's book that Los Angeles is the home of all the bitter people of the country. Bunker Hill, he calls it. So that eliminates California as a place to live. That leaves Florida, Dayton, and Canton.

After the war and before I go back to school I would like to take a vacation in Florida for a couple of months. Play golf, swim, get sun-burned, play tennis, and relax in general. And maybe try to write a little. I am going to try to save and make enough money while I am in the army to buy whatever is a new Ford station wagon, whatever clothes I would need, and a vacation in Florida. Dinny once said she would go to Florida with me. Maybe she would.

Friday, August 13

Mother and Daddy were here last night. They seem to be well-pleased with the way things are going here.

Daddy says WHBC is doing very well, making money, and that the potential surface has hardly been scratched.

Must thank Mrs. Thurin for Western Star. I didn't know that she gave it to me. I was reading part of it in the Atlantic Monthly yesterday. It is just about as good as John Brown's Body. Too bad he didn't get to finish it.

Marylou is beginning to make me mad. She writes often enough, but she ignores my letters. Either I am dumber than I think I am and don't understand her at all, or she is dumber than I think she is and doesn't understand me at all. If she doesn't say something in her next letter, I am going to tell her that.

I saw our shipping order last night. I am classified as 806. All of the other 72 are 745. Then I went to the reclassification center and looked up 806 and it was cryptographer. Everything seems to be going the way I had hoped it would.

The sergeant here said we would probably be sent to New York City. Also he said that we could very likely get decent passes there. I wonder how far it is from New York to Philadelphia. If it is not to [sic] far I might get to see Marylou again. That would help. Maybe I would be able to better understand just what was happening.

Magazines I would like to get regularly when I get back in school

1) Reader's Digest

2) Fortune

3) New Yorker

4) Atlantic Monthly

5) American Mercury

6) Saturday Evening Post

7) Colliers

8) American Magazine

9) Good Housekeeping

If I go back to Denison I want the same room that we had and have two others in the room instead of just one more. I will be practically an upperclassman by then and would be able pretty much to have my choice. I would like to build the furniture for the room myself.

Wrote to Mrs. Thruin and to Kleymeyers.

Also wrote to Corporal Kay but didn't say much.

Sunday, Aug. 15

Rode in the train all day yesterday. We arrived at Camp Shanks, New York, 18 miles from New York City.

Lost 24.75 in a poker game on the train. If I go to see Marylou I will have to wire home for some money. That, I think, is the last time I will play poker. I am still about 40 dollars ahead on the game, but that doesn't help me much now with just 5 dollars left.

Went into the library as soon as I got here. They are just beginning to get organized. I asked if I could be of any help. The librarian, a Miss Chamberlin, jumped at the chance.

She said I would have to get the approval of my company commander, and if he said OK, I would be in the library all day until we shipped. Then she said I could sort out some books that hadn't been classified. There are about 5,000 that came in on the Victory Book Drive. I worked until 10 in the evening.

Later I asked the company commander if I could work there. He said all right.

The line to get into the the mess has [sic] is at least 100 yards long. I did not eat any meals there.

Monday, Aug. 16

We are on the alert again and supposedly will leave for an overseas destination within 48 hours. The rumor is that the Queen Mary is waiting to take us over. I wonder what that does to my classification?

Went to the library to work this morning. There are two girls who work there, both very good looking and both about 20.

They have a new book by Vincent Starrett, a commentary of some sort on Sherlock Holmes.

Am reading Thomas Wolfe's Web & the Rock. It is supposed to be not entirely autobiographical and is more imaginative. It is not nearly as good as Of Time & the River. The characters are given more complete descriptions and they do not seem nearly so real. The story is duller, but at times it rises to heights not reached in any of his other works. I think when I have finished it, I will go through the whole book, word by word, and pick out all the choice expressions, ideas, feelings, moods, and words that I do not use easily and put them all in some sort of book and attempt to make them part of my vocabulary.

Description of any particular army movement: Snafu — situation normal, all fucked up.

He has the hallucination that he is exempt from KP.

Tonight was the big blow-off. Most of the fellows in our hut are terribly afraid. They don't want to go across. Tonight almost the whole company got drunk. They came back to their huts and then the fights started. Non-coms and privates.

With knives and with fists. Some had their faces massacred. Money was stolen. The boy who sleeps under me was out cold and kept rolling out of his bed. The sergeant gave a long drunk, incoherent talk. He talked about having to be tough and then said never to light three cigarettes on one match at night.

Gus, Lanning, Wolf and I talked it over afterwards. With knives around, we were almost afraid to go to bed.

But it all convinced me that most people plain and simply aren't worth a damn. The idea of our risking our lives to save the institutions and families that produced 80% of these soldiers in [sic] too foolish to be funny. There is no point in not admitting that I am better than most people. I know I am! At first I thought they were just ignorant. They are, but that is only the beginning of what is wrong. They are low, base, vulgar, vile, arrogant, loud, stupid, inconsiderate, unsportsmanlike, shallow, impossible-to-be-improved, spoiled perpetual babies.

Some are swell fellows, but most would serve their best service to our country by stopping a German bullet. The army and navy, without doubt unintentionally, are doing the best possible thing by keeping the cream of our young men in school in some reserve program. The best of our youth will never be killed in this war. It will be over before most of them get in combat. If our group gets killed the country won't lose much. They aren't even human beings. More and more I agree with Neitzsche [sic] that the world should be run by and for the aristocracy. The only difficulty is determining just who belongs to the aristocracy. Money is a pretty good guide, but it is not without exceptions. There is a real problem there — what is the aristocracy?

Tuesday, Aug. 17

I was crossed up today. I was on KP from 5 in the morning till 9 at night, washing greasy, smelly pans the whole time. And it was all a mistake. I was not supposed to be on KP, but there was nothing I could do about it. I learned a lot.

Those who loafed got off early. Those who worked hard were kept longer. I guess that there is not a better way of running things. It has to be done that way. The soldiers would not appreciate or understand anything better. It would be like barbarians in ancient Greece, destroying whatever they couldn't understand.

Human nature cannot be talked of as a whole. Some are good. Some are bad. To call the two as a group by some single title would mean absolutely nothing.

There is no excuse for all of the grease, filth, and trouble that goes with eating. It will not be long until kitchens are unnecessary. Someone will devise a pill to satisfy our nourishment requirements and someone will discover an artificial flavored food with no waste or trouble for those who live to eat. Piping food all over town from one common kitchen would be a great advancement, but it would be like the telegraph with the radio soon to follow.

Thursday, Aug. 19

It is impossible to describe the sickening feeling of knowing I have to go across with those animals in our hut. To think that my life might some day depend on them. And they not only are mental midgets, but most of them are physical weaklings. Thank God I have an active mind and strong body.

For the first time I dread what we are getting into — not because I am in any way afraid, not so much as before because it will be a waste of so much time, but because I have to associate, live with, fight with a bunch of non-thinking, impotent, malformed hunks of living flesh.

I began to understand why 3 from our company committed suicide. I see why people go over the hill. Anything to get away!

If my reclassification doesn't have some effect, I don't know what I will do.

Finished the Web & the Rock. Excellent in parts, poor in others.

What an army. The captain of the next company has been AWOL for 2 days and the chaplain is in the guard-house.

Some more books to read & buy

Murder for Pleasure — Haycraft

Becoming a Writer — Brande

Friday, Aug. 20

It looks like this shipping overseas business is really on the up and up. We are supposed to leave the camp at 5 tonight.

On our way. As we marched down to the train, some colored troops went by us. They were laughing and singing while our company was pretty serious. A boy next to me told me his father said the colored boys could really fight and if, in battle, you found yourself next to one, you were pretty well off.

Later, while we were on the ferry going out to the boat, they sang the whole way. Some of the songs I had never heard, but as we passed the dark outline of the statue of liberty, they were singing I've Been Working on the Railroad.

I read Study in Scarlet most of the way.

Saturday, Aug. 21

This is hard to believe. We are crowded in this ship worse than cattle. There are 10 times as many on the boat as is its normal peace-time capacity. Soldiers sleep everywhere — on the deck, in the halls, even in the mess hall. It makes you think of the old slave ships. If only I were a poet right now.

We have to stand in line about 2 hours for each meal. We eat only twice a day.

We have hit no high waves yet but even so I am beginning to get sea-sick. One boy threw-up this evening. We are heading southeast.

Read a volume of Sherlock Holmes and finished

Bennet's How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.

I think Armin Wolf and I might get to work on the ship's library.

A corporal Kaate wants to play chess. If only we could find a chess set.

Sunday, Aug. 22

This must have been a wonderful trip during peace-time. My future plans now include a year's stay in Europe.

Since there is not much to do, I have been thinking of all sorts of projects in addition to going through Wolfe thoroughly.

1) Make a list of all the books I have read

2) A list of the subjects at Denison I still want to take

3) Requirements of the girl I want to marry

4) Rules for winning and holding a girl

5) Complete analysis of Sherlock Holmes

6) Complete analysis of Wodehouse

7) Write a term paper on Holmes

8) Write a series of Sherlock Holmes adventures

9) Term paper on Wodehouse

10) Short stories in the Wodehouse manner

11) Experiment a little in the Wolfe, Hale, intensity-of-feeling style

12) Try to write some concrete poetry

13) Write a college novel

14) Sport stories for pulp magazines

15) Story of a man from different viewpoints

16) Requirements for myself before I marry

17) Essays in the Wodehouse, Benchley, Leacock manner

18) Mystery-detective stories with a Benchley type detective

19) A list of what I know & what I can & have done

20) Parallel list of what I want to know & be able to do

21) My own outline of knowledge & conclusions

22) Story of my life up to now — for no particular reason

23) Good-housekeeping type success-love stories

24) Term paper on Blake

25) Term paper on Wolfe

26) Plans for the Denisonian

27) Term paper on Chatterton, MacPherson

28) Memorize a lot of poetry & some prose

BOOKS I HAVE READ:

YOUNG CHILDREN'S IMAGINATIVE STORIES

1 Wags & Woofie

1 Day at the Circus

1 Little Brown Bear

2 Anderson & Grimm

25 Uncle Wiggly

18 Oz Books

1 Little Swiss Wood Carver

1 In the Clouds

6 Christmas Stories

1 Black Beauty

40 Big Little Books & comic books

97 + 20 that I probably forgot = 117

JUVENILE ADVENTURE STORIES

16 Bomba - Rockwood

1 Zorak

3 Tarzan - Burroughs

14 Tom Swift - Appleton

1 Conqueror of the Highroad

3 Dave Dashaway - Rockwood

6 Don Sturdy - Appleton

6 Howard Pease Sea Stories

                    Jim Davis

1 Masefield The Dukes Messenger

1 Robin Hood

10 Children's Classics

6 Book-house

                    Wildcat

2 Heyliger Mill in the Woods

5 Jack on the Railroad

12 Jerry Todd - Leo Edwards

5 Poppy OH - Edwards

4 Tuffy Dean - Edwards

2 Andy Blake - Edwards

1 Beyond the Dog's Nose - Sherman

1 Terrible Terry

1 Zane Grey western

6 Indian stories from library

1 Knife-in-the-Back

1 Thunderbolt - Campbell

1 Haunted Airways - Burns

1 Mark Tidd in Egypt - Kelland

1 Galloping Ghost - Snell

1 Black Schooner - Snell

1 Panther Eye - Snell

1 Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas

116 + 50 that I forget = 166

SPORT STORIES

13 Baseball Joe - Chadwick

12 Standish Baseball Stories

11 Sherman sport stories

4 Zane Grey baseball stories

8 Garry Grayson football stories

1 On the 40 yard line

1 Quarterback Hot-head

3 Frank Merriwell

4 Ascha Boys team

1 The Young Pitcher

1 How to Play Baseball - Coombs

1 How to Play Better Baseball - Barbour

1 A New Way to Better Golf - Morrison

1 A Quick Way to Better Golf - Snead

1 Right Angles

1 Out of the Rough

3 Wodehouse on Golf

1 Galligo on Golf

100 Pulp sport story

168 + 30 that I forgot = 198

DETECTIVE & MYSTERY STORIES

14 Hardy Boys

2 Adventure Boys

1 Mystery of the Glacier

2 Rex Cole

1 Detectives Inc. - Heyliger

1 Buchan, John

3 Bulldog Drummond - Mc Neile

2 Reeves

1 Ivory Snuff Box - Fredricks

1 Midnight Guest

1 Gold Bullets

1 Green

1 Hound of the Baskervilles - Doyle

1 Study in Scarlet - Doyle

1 Sign of the Four - Doyle

1 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Doyle

1 Case Book of Sherlock Holmes - Doyle

1 Memories of Sherlock Holmes - Doyle

1 Return of Sherlock Holmes - Doyle

1 Behind That Curtain - Biggers

1 House Without a Key - Biggers

1 Canary Murder Case - Van Dine

1 Dashell Hammet -

1 Perry Mason - Earle Stanley Gardener

1 The Lodger - Mrs. Belloc Lowndes

1 Turn of the Screw - James

1 The Postman Always Rings Twice

1 The Chinese Orange Mystery - Queen

1 French Powder Mystery - Queen

1 Roman Hat - Queen

1 Halfway House - Queen

1 Spanish Cape - Queen

1 Greek Coffin - Queen

1 Siamese Twin - Queen

1 Dutch Shoe - Queen

1 American Gun - Queen

1 Calamity Town - Queen

1 Adventures of Ellery Queen

1 New Adventures of Ellery Queen

1 Health Doctor? - Queen

1 Tragedy of X - Queen

1 Nine Tailors - Sayers

1 Murder of Roger Ackroyd

1 Mystery of the Blue Train

1 Corpse With the Floating Foot - Walling

1 The Body That Came by Post - Yates

1 League of Forgotten Man - Stout

66 + 40 collections & ones I forgot = 106

OTHER BOOKS NOT QUITE ABLE TO BE CLASSIFIED

1 Lightnin'

1 Treasure Island - Stevenson

1 Silas Mariner - Eliot

1 Lady of the Lake - Scott

1 Tale of Two Cities - Dickins

1 Christmas Carrol - Dickins

1 Vicar of Wakefield - Goldsmith

1 Ben Hur - Wallace

1 Friend of Caesar

1 Evangeline - Longfellow

1 Don Juan - Byron

1 Toss of the D'Urbervilles - Hardy

1 Return of the Native - Hardy

1 Robinson Crusoe - Defoe

1 Swiss Family Robinson

1 John Brown's Body - Benet

2 Poems of Margaret Fishback

4 Poems of Dorothy Parker

1 Complete Poe

20 Poetry Collections & Anthologies

60 Short story collections

1 Sorrel & Son - Duping

1 Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens

1 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

1 Autobiography of William Lyon Phelps

1 Autobiography of Eduard Boh

1 Napoleon - Ludwig

1 Wild Bill Hickok

1 My Life & Work - Ford

1 Today & Tomorrow - Ford

84 School books

1 Topper - Thorne Smith

1 Thorne Smith

1 Jeves

3 Nothing but Wodehouse

1 Steig - Lonely Ones

1 My World & Welcome To It - Thurber

1 Retold Tales - Thurber

1 Our Hearts Were Young & Gay - Skinner

1 They Got Me Covered - Hope

1 Pride & Prejudice - Auster

1 Education of Hyman Kaplan - Ross

1 Precious Bane - Mary Webb

1 Wuthering Heights - Bronte'

1 Education of Hyman Kaplan

1 Romantic Movement - Beers

1 How to Live - Bennett

1 How to Win Friends & Influence People

1 Look Homeward Angel - Wolfe

1 Of Time & the River - Wolfe

1 The Web & the Rock - Wolfe

1 Face of the Nation - Wolfe

1 Magnificent Obsession - Douglass

1 Green Light - Douglass

1 Forgive Us Our Trespasses - Douglass

1 Prodigal Women - Hale

1 Lost Horizon - Hilton

1 Good-bye Mr. Chips - Hilton

1 Random Harvest - Hilton

1 Death Comes for the Archbishop - Cather

1 Idle Money - Idle Man - Steuare Chase

1 Walter Lippman

1 Story of Philosophy - Will Durant

1 Story of Mankind - Van Loon

1 Philadelphia Story -

1 Man Who Came to Dinner

1 Julius Caesar

1 Macbeth

1 Hamlet

1 Idylls of the King - Tennyson

1 Lady Windemere's Fan - Wilde

1 No Time for Comedy - Behrman

1 Margin for Error - Clare Booth

1 Awake & Sing - Odets

1 The Adding Machine

1 Dodsworth - Sinclair Lewis

1 Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis

1 Street Scene

1 Winterset

1 Ah, Wilderness

1 My 10 Years in a Quandary - Benchley

1 Bridge - Culbertson

1 Bridge of San Luis Rey - Wilder

1 Our Town - Wilder

1 How to Write for a Living - White

1 Writing & Selling - Woodford

1 Plotting - Woodford

1 How to Make Better Pictures

1 Washington Reporter

10 Books on Choosing Careers

5 Books on Choosing a College

1 Best of Damon Runyon

1 Ask Me Another

10 Quiz & Puzzle Books

1 Rhyme of Reason

1 Codes & Ciphers

1 Cryptography

1 Gentlemen Aren't Sissies

1 Death in a White Tie - Marsh

1 Rebecca - Du Maurier

1 See Here, Private Hargrove

10 Books of Essays

1 Moon & the Sixpence - Maugham

1 Call of the Wild - London

1 White Fang - London

1 Lad - Thrhune

1 Treve - Terhune

2 Other Terhune

1 Moby Dick

1 Tony Won's Scrapbook

1 The Moon is Down - Steinbeck

1 World's Great Detective Stories - Van Dine

1 The Snow Goose - Gallico

1 Philosopher's Holliday - Erwin Edman

1 Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - Stevenson

1 His Last Bow - Doyle

1 Tom Sawyer - Twain

1 Last of the Mohicans - Cooper

1 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Twain

1 Egyptian Cross Mystery - Queen

1 Aesop's Fables

1 Seventeen - Tarkington

1 Rumbin Galleries - Tarkington

1 Penrod - Tarkington

1 Count of Monte' Cristo - Dumas

1 Ill Wind - Hilton

1 Valley of Fear - Doyle

1 H.M. Pullham Esq. - Marquand

1 Les Miserables - Hugo

1 My Name Is Aram - Saroyan

1 The Human Comedy - Saroyan

1 The Beautiful People - Saroyan

1 Sunny in the Trees - Saroyan

1 Barefoot Boy With Cheek

1 The Big House

1 New Deal Ditties - Berton Braley

1 Dracula - Stoker

1 Departmental Ditties & Barrack Room Ballads-Kipling

1 20th Century Love Poetry

1 Oscar Wilde & The Yellow Nineties - Winmar

1 Portrait of Jennie - Robert Nathan

340 + 250 that I probably forgot = 590

117 + 166 + 198 + 106 + 590 = 1177

And 1177, I am certain, is a very conservative estimate.

Friday, August 27

Have been memorizing poetry.   Gus, Armin, Louis, & I work in the ship's library.

As for the poetry, here it is:

Tiger - Blake

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright

In the forest of the night,

What imortal [sic] hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulders and what art

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when the heart began to beat,

What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hamer? [sic] What the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did He smile his work to see?

Did He who made the Lamb make thee?

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright

In the forest of the night!

What imortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

When I Was One & Twenty - Houseman

When I was one-and-twenty

I heard a wise man say,

"Give crowns and pounds and guineas,

"But not your heart away.

"Give pearls away and rubies,

But keep your fancy free.

But I was one-and-twenty.

No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty

I heard him say again,

"The heart from out the bosom

"Was never given in vain.

"'Tis paid with countless sorrow

And sold for endless rue. And I am two-and-twenty,

And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

When I Was In Love With You - Houseman

When I was in love with you,

Then I was clean and brave,

And miles around the wonder grew,

How well did I behave.

But now the fancy passes

And nothing will remain.

And miles around they'll say that I

Am quite myself again.

Celibacy

Where is the love that might have been

Flung to the far ends of the earth?

In my body stamping 'round,

In my body like a hound,

Lashed and restless,

Biding time.

Young Romance Sought Adventure

Young Romance sought Adventure

In a glittering cafe'.

And he was brave and found her, too,

And they had much to say,

And cool, red wine and redder lips

When words had gone their way.

Young Romance held her in his arms

And she was passion! Lo,

With bursting dawn the mask of dreams

Fell off and left her so

Grotesque and dull and hollow-eyed —

And Romance turned to go.

Young Romance saw his vision rent

As ever Romance must;

That passion stripped of purple lights

Is close to death as dust, —

Without the vibrant touch of love,

Another name for lust.

                                Oppenheim

I'm In Love With the Janitor's Boy

Oh, I'm in love with the janitor's boy,

And the janitor's boy loves me.

He's hunting for a desert isle

In our geography.

A desert isle with spicy trees,

Somewhere near Sheepshead Bay, —

A right nice place, just fit for two,

Where we can live alway…"

The books I read this last week have had quite an effect on me. The first one, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, pointed out that most people sleep themselves stupid. His suggestion is to get up earlier in the morning by at least an hour, maybe two. We will never have more time than we have now. There are only 24 hours in a day and there will never be any more. Do something all the time. – Preferably something for self-improvement.

Bennet suggest two concrete ways of improving oneself. The first, to think, concentrate, for one half hour every day on some particular subject. This will develop the mind and its ability to think consistently, persistently, and thoroughly. The second suggestion, to devote 2 hours a day for 3 days a week — keeping the schedule very regular — to reading and studying any particular subject. – He has a section on books, saying that cheap editions are fine but that they cannot entirely make up a good personal library. There is something about fine type and binding which adds to the enjoyment and inspirational qualities of the book. Also, that some books are purchased with no intention of ever reading them – not to show off, but because something of the author's noble work and spirit seeps into the man who just looks at the book on the shelf. The man feels better for just having the book – and with no idea of trying to impress visitors. Bennett is right on both counts.

The next book was 20th Century Love Poetry, of which I memorized a good bit. It taught me for the first time something that Thomas Wolfe mentioned in Of Time & the River – that you don't run across unknown, outstanding writers.

Those who are good are recognized and soon become famous. In this book of poems, the author's name was at the end of each poem and every time there was a poem that seemed to have more class than the others, it would prove to be by a well-known poet.

2 books to buy —

Appointment in Baker Street - Smith

The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars - Boucher

The next book was Philosophers Holiday by Erwin Edman. He convinced me of one thing — that I want to be a college professor — not of philosophy but of English. He talked about the occasional outstanding students that sometimes find themselves in his classes. For most he can do no good, but for the few unusual ones, he feels he has been able to contribute something.

College should not be a place to learn how to earn a living — nor should any part of a liberal education. Rather, it should be to teach the student how to live, how to think, to scratch the surface of many