About the Author

Samuel Hynes is Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature Emeritus at Princeton University and the author of several major works of literary criticism, including The Auden Generation, Edwardian Occasions, and The Edwardian Turn of Mind. Hynes's wartime experiences as a Marine Corps pilot were the basis for his highly praised memoir, Flights of Passage. The Soldiers' Tale, his book about soldiers' narratives of the two world wars and Vietnam, won a Robert F. Kennedy Award. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Reviews

An unusual and moving book . . . an authentic fragment, poignant and real, of a great and tumultuous past. ("The Washington Post Book World")

"A compelling and honest memoir as well as a profound human document of a terrible and heroic time. Hynes's story is fascinating, imaginative, and unforgettable"

"An unusual and moving book . . . an authentic fragment, poignant and real, of a great and tumultuous past."

Teenager Hynes (now Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature, Princeton) took naval flight training, became a Marine bomber pilot, and late in World War II flew over 100 missions against the Japanese. His scintillating descriptions of this time, of his friends and often bawdy fellow pilots, of his tentative romantic adventures, and of new vistas and challenges, are woven together with skill and intelligence. This is not a standard story of courage in war, but rather a tale of the dogged and mortal persistence to pass many versions of ``the Test'' that training and combat and even sex presented to a young man preparing for war. An introspective, winning, and vivid recollection sketched by a gifted observer. Mel D. Lane, Sacramento, Cal.

An unusual and moving book . . . an authentic fragment, poignant and real, of a great and tumultuous past. ("The Washington Post Book World")
"A compelling and honest memoir as well as a profound human document of a terrible and heroic time. Hynes's story is fascinating, imaginative, and unforgettable"
"An unusual and moving book . . . an authentic fragment, poignant and real, of a great and tumultuous past."