The Beardless Warriors [Hardcover]

Richard Matheson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1960

The Beardless Warriors are teen-age American soldiers, members of a rifle squad engaged in an assault on a little German town below Bastogne called Saarbach. This novel is the story of Cooley's squad, and in particular of Everett Hackermeyer,one of the 18 year old replacements thrown into battle after a few brief weeks of basic training.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 337 pages
• Publisher: Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960; First Edition (stated) edition (1960)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000CEN7ZY
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,236,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Matheson was born in 1926. He began publishing SF with his short story 'Born of Man and Woman' in 1950. I Am Legend was published in 1954 and subsequently filmed as The Omega Man (in 1971), starring Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend (in 2007), starring Will Smith. Matheson wrote the script for the film The Incredible Shrinking Man, an adaptation of his second SF novel The Shrinking Man. The film won a Hugo award in 1958. He wrote many screenplays as well as episodes of The Twilight Zone. He continued to write short stories and novels, some of which formed the basis for film scripts, including Duel, directed by Steven Spielberg in 1971. A film of his novel What Dreams May Come was released in 1998, starring Robin Williams. Stephen King has cited Richard Matheson as a creative influence on his work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Newsflash: War is Hell, July 4, 2004

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Beardless Warriors: A Novel of World War II (Paperback)

Before Matheson became a prolific writer of science fiction stories, novels, Twilight Zone episodes, and films, he served as a replacement infantryman in World War II. Some fifteen years later, he set down his experiences as a novel about a teenager sent to the front lines for the Allied advance into Germany. The story covers the first two weeks of Private Everett Hackermeyer's war, as he joins an understrength squad under the leadership of a grizzled Sergeant who acts as a father figure. But having been abandoned by his drunk father to be raised by his nasty uncle, Hackermeyer has no conception of what a father figure is, or really of what it means when people are nice to him. The result is that when thrown into the tight camaraderie of small unit combat, Hackermeyer is often confused, and retreats into his head to analyze the meaning behind every gesture and phrase directed at him.

He survives his initial baptism by fire, and accidentally discovers that he has an actual talent for killing the enemy. The question becomes, will he be able to operate as a good soldier, or will his inner demons lead him into increasingly risky and bloodthirsty acts? He's a bit of a stock character, the poor kid raised by wolves and never given a chance, who blossoms under a firm and wise guiding hand. But his mental issues keep him from becoming the kind of everyman hero common to World War II stories. His fellow privates are also somewhat stock figures: the sardonic joker/college boy from California, the bumbling idiot, the religious nut, and so on. The Sergeant is an incredibly cliche figure, who even offers Hackermeyer a job on his ranch, should they ever make it back home. These character deficiencies aside, the book is notable for its ability to put the reader in the middle of the terror and tedium that was World War II. The descriptions of shelling are truly horrific, and the chaos of small scale combat really comes to life. Matheson clearly pulls no punches in his description of what it meant to be on the front line, and the fear that inspired.

I read this at the same time as watching the "Band of Brothers" miniseries, and found it very complementary. Both do an excellent job at showing the mix of boredom and horror that infantrymen faced, however this book emphasizes how utterly alone each man is on the battlefield, while the miniseries (per its title), emphasizes the camaraderie. Ultimately the book is somewhat cliche across the board, but still well worth reading if you're interested in World War II.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Infantry War at the Grunt level, April 17, 2001

By 

Donald Occhi (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Beardless Warriors: A Novel of World War II (Paperback)

I first read this book in about 1965, and it served at the inspiration for me to serve in the United States Army (Infantry) for 24 years. The book captures the essence of being an infantryman, the misery, the terror and heroism. It demonstrates the true meaning of war at the lowest level. The soldiers fight not for the country, but for each other. If you want to learn about soldiers and the profession of arms, this is the book to read. The military books about the generals and admirals cannot convey real combat operations as Mr. Matheson does. Of course, they just order the deaths of young soldiers. This books makes you feel the deaths.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal, March 6, 2003

By 

Edward M. Erdelac (Valley Village, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Beardless Warriors: A Novel of World War II (Paperback)

Penned by one of the greatest and most prolific writers of the 20th century and based in part upon his own experiences in one of the greatest conflicts of the 20th century, this is a novel that needs to be read -particularly by those in power anywhere who would send their troops to war. This is the most utterly enveloping account of front line combat I have ever read. The story is about a mere three weeks in the life of a young man named Hackameyer who participates in the latter offensive in Europe in the closing days of World War II. We are immersed entirely in the body of this introverted, easily confused kid who has sprung from a dead-end family that gave him nothing but self-doubt, only to find that it seems our one true talent in life is killing. While all the typical genre devices of the two-fisted World War II tale are here (the fatherly Sergeant, the pacifist religious guy, the incompetent private), this is NOT typical fare. We are THERE. We can feel the reverberation of the shells as they hit all around us. We are sick to our stomach at the squeaking sounds of the tank treads and the groan of the engines as they smash through the brush. We feel for the characters Hackameyer gets attached to, and we hate the ones he hates. We exhult in Hackameyer's accomplishments, even while we, as readers outside the character can plainly see the dangerous line he is treading between hero and maniac. We want desperately the same things Hackameyer wants - a home on a ranch with a real father. This should be read by anyone who wants to understand the experience of the soldier - ANY soldier on the front line.