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Wars and peace : the memoir of an American family / Rory Quirk.
LIBRA CT275.Q557 A4 1999
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Quirk, Rory, 1943-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Quirk, James T. (James Thomas), 1911-1969--Correspondence.
- Quirk, James T.
- Quirk, Elizabeth, 1909-1962--Correspondence.
- Quirk, Elizabeth.
- Quirk, Rory, 1943-.
- Quirk, Rory.
- Quirk, Elizabeth, 1909-1962.
- Quirk, James T. (James Thomas), 1911-1969.
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American.
- World War, 1939-1945.
- Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American.
- Korean War, 1950-1953.
- Soldiers--United States--Biography.
- Soldiers.
- United States.
- Publishers and publishing--United States--Biography.
- Publishers and publishing.
- Quirk (Family)--Correspondence.
- World War, 1939-1945--Social aspects--United States.
- Korean War, 1950-1953--Social aspects--United States.
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Social aspects--United States.
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975.
- Local Subjects:
- Quirk (Family)--Correspondence.
- World War, 1939-1945--Social aspects--United States.
- Korean War, 1950-1953--Social aspects--United States.
- Genre:
- Personal narratives -- American.
- Biographies.
- Correspondence.
- Personal correspondence.
- Personal narratives.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 264 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Novato, CA : Presidio, [1999]
- Summary:
- Wars and Peace is a very American story of an ordinary family in extraordinary times, which transform them, their generation, and our world. The reader is transported back in time through wartime letters written by the family.
- It is the story of James Quirk and Elizabeth Wolstencroft. Depression-era sweethearts, they marry in 1934 and settle in Philadelphia to carve out their small piece of the American Dream. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941 defers the dream--for them and their generation.
- By late spring, 1942, James is in the army. Over the next four years, through their letters to each other, James and Elizabeth are at the center of the great events of World War II--from the Blitz, to Normandy, to the destruction of Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich. In that time, James serves under two of the great combat generals--Omar Bradley and George Patton (saving the mercurial Patton from his incessantly careless tongue). Elizabeth and their infant son experience a different war at home, fighting separation, uncertainty and the dreaded Western Union telegram.
- As the war rages, James and Elizabeth pledge that in their post-war lives there will be one constant: they will not endure the pain of separation again. But after a brief interlude, the family finds itself again at war, when James is called to Korea. In raw detail his letters capture the Korean battlefront.
- The wars transform James and Elizabeth, imbuing them with a sense of great possibility along with impatience to get on with their interrupted lives. Reunited again, the family achieves the good times as James becomes the first publisher of TV Guide, but at a cost to their post-war dream of reunion. When son Rory goes to Vietnam--the family's third war in a generation--the dream runs out, in a stunning and unexpected way.
- Contents:
- 1 Before War (1909-43) 4
- 2 A Family at War (1944-45) 11
- 3 Between Wars (1945-51) 148
- 4 A Family at War (1951) 157
- 5 Between Wars (1951-68) 198
- 6 A Family at War (1968-69) 212
- 7 A Family at Peace 223.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-250) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0891416838
- OCLC:
- 41165251
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