[Ads-l] early nonfiction "novel"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Ossa upon Pelion:

1957 _Star-Ledger_ (Newark, N.J.) (Sept. 14) 6 [N]: "Helmet for My Pillow"
[is] a war novel to be released by Random House next Tuesday...."Helmet for
Pillow" is  [Robert]  Leckie's own story of his stint as a machine gunner
and scout for the First Marine Division.

JL

On Sat, May 16, 2026 at 3:13 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Maybe this was simple carelessness, but I doubt it:
>
> 1861_Daily National Intelligencer_ (July 15) 2 [Newspapers.com] : WAR
> NOVELS.--A large assortment of English War Novels, by Grant, Maxwell,
> Gleig, Macfarlane, and other authors,” all in “Cheap editions, for Camp
> reading.”
>
> It isn’t easy to identify these names,but I've tracked down two, and
> neither was a novelist.
>
> Historian Charles Macfarlane's _Great Battles of the British Army_ was
> advertised in British papers in 1853 and was revised and frequently
> reprinted.
>
> The Rev. G. R. Gleig's _Sale's Brigade in Afghanistan : with an Account of
> the Seizure and Defence of Jellalabad_ appeared in 1846.
>
> The 1861 ad in the _Intelligencer_ also contains the earliest ex. I've
> seen of the phrase "war novel."
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Jan 13, 2024 at 12:11 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> 1952 News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) (Feb. 17) IV 5: "Serenade to the
>> Big Bird," by Bert Stiles, is a splendid personal account of life in the
>> Air Corps.... [T]his novel [is] probably the best of its kind to come out
>> of World War II.
>>
>> The book in question is straight autobiography - as the reviewer seems to
>> have realized.
>>
>> JL
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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