The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 14 June 2023
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by Edward Streeter
The First World War was now well over a century ago. Ancient history? Given what the world was like in 1918, we can be forgiven for thinking of it as something like an alien planet. But culture moves in weird ways. It drags along, then lurches forward, or backward. That war, The Great War, was infamous for its brutality, the first war of antiquated tactics meeting modern mass killing machines. Hundreds of thousands of men (mostly men, of course) died agonizingly bloody and painful deaths on the battlefield. And that's not to consider the millions who died around the world from the grim Spanish Flu pandemic. We know what a pandemic feels like now, don't we? Indeed, thare are tremendously familiar aspects of life on this alien planet that is 1918. And people strived to make sense of it, through art, history and even humor.
Edward Streeter, author of the popular novel (then several movies) Father of the Bride was a veteran of World War 1. He more or less got his start as a writer during that war, when he and an illustrator friend created fictional letters home that ran in his weekly company newsletter The Gas Attack. Compiled into three novels, the first two turned out to be quite popular, and sold well while Streeter and friends were on the battlefields of France. A third volume appeared toward the end of the war. One edition, re-published in 1940, comprised the first two of these books, and presaged another war.
Streeter's character, Bill Smith, writes letters home, about once a week, from training camp in South Carolina. Mable is his sweetheart, and presumed fiancé, though we don't think he's popped the question yet. Streeter himself was 27 when he served in the army in 1918. Bill seems to be a bit younger. Streeter crafts an ingeniously goofy writing voice for Bill, with numerous humorous misspellings, colloquialisms, and various jibes and insults. Some of them at Mable's expense, but mostly going after the commanding officers and fellow soldiers. The letters are brief and witty, with the occasional sharp joke, and familiar soldier humor. Every once in a while, though, the grim fact of a brutal war slips through, and these light letters suddenly reveal interesting and complex feelings about war and mortality. America came into that war late, and it was all over in 19 months or so. Bill Smith spends most of that time in training. But we get a chance to look over his shoulder as he shoots light letters to his gal back home. Overall, these books are remarkable artefacts from that time.
Onward into the third of these volumes, Same ol' Bill, eh Mable is the letters from France as Bill Smith finally finds himself on the front, if only briefly. The same wry wit permeates the language, but the tales are decidedly darker when it comes to describing bombardments in the trenches and off-handed mentions of the dead and dying. Horses are used and abused, horse handlers are kicked. Smith catches the flu and survives. He goes "over the top" and lives to tell the tale. It is not terribly explicit, but the savvy reader can detect the horrors behind the lightness of the fictional letters. Finally, of course, the war ends. Smith is both relieved to be going home, and somewhat regretful for the two years of his life spent in the effort. Like so many in the army at war, there is little appetite for more.
Also by Streeter: [Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter] [Father of the Bride]