ERNIE PYLE - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 9/6 - HFSID 47433

ERNIE PYLE
The journalist writes a letter to family with updates on his travels
TLS: "Ernest" in pencil, 1p, 8x10½. London, England, no year September 6. To "Dear Papa & Auntie". In full: "I'll probably have a letter from you in a day or two, but I'm going out of town tomorrow morning for a few days, and thought I better write before I go. I'm going to visit some of the Army camps, and will be back in later in the week to write up. That's what I'll be doing from now on for quite awhile - out a few days, and in a few days. I've been working very hard to try to get far enough ahead with the columns that I can send them back by airmail instead of radio, which will save the office a lot of money. I've already got one batch of nine to Washington in time by airmail, and have another batch of nine on the way, and six more about ready to go. It doesn't make any difference how far ahead I write them, for there's no time-element to them. And if anything big happens, I can always radio columns right in for immediate use. The weather has been quite chilly the last few days, but bright and sunshiny nevertheless. It probably won't be long though until nasty fall weather sets in. I've got heavy underwear with me, but there will be great fuel economy this winter, so I expect I'll be pretty miserable trying to write all day in cold hotel rooms, for the British don't heat like we do even in normal times. Last week-end I went down to Dover, on the southeast coast, and it was very clear and we could look right across to France, and see the French coast for about 30 miles up and down. Through binoculars we could even see houses and barns and towns. It didn't seem real that that was enemy territory and we couldn't go over there. I wanted to get up to the north of Scotland, which is so beautiful, before fall weather set in, but I'm afraid I won't make it now, as I have another month or so to work in southern England before I could go up. I haven't done much of anything this past week but sit in and write, and there's been very little mail since I wrote last, so I'm afraid there really isn't very much news to write this time. I've gained a little weight and am feeling fine and my cold is practically gone now. They're going to cut down drastically on travel in England soon, but I guess I won't have any trouble getting around, being a correspondent. I am getting some rather nice reports back from America on the columns. I won't know for another month or so what my winter plans will be, but I imagine I'll stay over. Are you making any plans for the winter or do you think you'll stay home? I guess that's all there is to write this time. I'll write again when I get back and get another letter from you. Hope you're both keeping well." Journalist Ernie Pyle (1900-1945) would win his greatest acclaim as a war correspondent. Pyle wrote his last column in Europe in September 1944, the year he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his reports from the European battlefront. After traveling to the Pacific to cover the war there, the 44-year-old Pyle was killed by machine gun fire on the island of Ie Shima, Okinawa, Japan on April 18, 1945. Compilations of his war columns appear in a number of books, and his coverage of the Italian campaign was the basis for the 1945 film, G.I. Joe. Pyle's columns had previously appeared six times weekly in the Scripps-Howard Newspaper Syndicate's 24 publications (his columns would eventually appear in over 200 newspapers). He had joined the syndicate as a roving reporter after serving as the managing editor of the Washington "Daily News". Not content with his former desk job, Pyle and his wife, Jerry, spent two years traveling across the U .S. to find stories that were known for his simple, warm, human writing style. After Jerry became increasingly ill, battling depression and substance abuse, Pyle sought out his stories on his own, writing for the syndicate for seven years before he left for Europe to cover the war. On thin paper. Lightly creased with folds, light diagonal crease at the "Er" of signature. 1½-inch separation at lower blank margin at mid-vertical fold, ¼-inch tear at blank right margin at mid-horizontal fold. Overall, fine condition.