Lines of Fire – One Man’s Search for the
Greatest War Letters Ever Written
7:00 p.m. Saturday, November 3
Words to family penned in a soldier’s hand—Revolutionary, Civil War, Desert Storm—illuminate the soldier, the conflict, and American ideals at the time of war. Andrew Carroll has dedicated himself to collecting and archiving these priceless pieces of American and personal history at the Center for American War Letters (CAWL). Along with showing the banquet audience extraordinary, original letters from CAWL’s collection, Carroll will discuss his latest book, My Fellow Soldiers: General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War.
Veterans and others with war letters they’re willing to donate to CAWL (either originals or photocopies) are encouraged to bring them to the event.
Carroll is the editor of several New York Times bestsellers, including War Letters, Letters of a Nation, and Behind the Lines. Andrew also edited, on a pro bono basis, Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families, which inspired the Emmy award-winning film of the same name.
Since 1998, Andrew has traveled to all 50 states and more than 40 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, to seek out and preserve the most extraordinary letters ever written by American troops, veterans, and their family members. Andrew has collected, to date, more than 100,000 previously unpublished letters and emails from every war in U.S. history, and he donated the letters, free of charge, to Chapman University in Orange, California. The university has set up the Center for American War Letters to archive these correspondences forever and bring in more letters as well. Andrew serves as the Center’s founding director.
Andrew is currently embarking on the “Million Letters Campaign” to find at least 1,000,000 war-related correspondences, including everything from handwritten missives penned during the Revolution up to emails sent from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Andrew’s most recent book is, My Fellow Soldiers: General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War, and Andrew was also recently featured in the critically acclaimed “American Experience” film on World War I, called “The Great War,” which was produced by PBS and broadcast nationwide.
For more information about the conference and to purchase banquet tickets, please visit the conference page on our website. For more information about donating war letters to CAWL, please visit www.WarLetters.us.