Through the Wheat: A Novel of the World War I Marines [Paperback]

Thomas Boyd (Author), Edwin Howard Simmons (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

Fresh out of a Defiance, Ohio, high school, Thomas Boyd (1898–1935) joined the Marines to serve his country in the patriotic heat of the spring of 1917. In 1919 he came home from the war with a Croix de Guerre and a desire to write. He joined the St. Paul News as a journalist and opened a bookstore, whose patrons included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis. Through the Wheat appeared to immediate acclaim, with F. Scott Fitzgerald calling it "a work of art" and "arresting." Boyd wrote five other works before he died in Vermont of a cerebral hemorrhage at age thirty-seven.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A remarkable first novel."—The Nation

(The Nation )

About the Author

Introducing this Bison Books edition is Edwin Howard Simmons, a retired brigadier general in the United States Marine Corps and the author of The United States Marines: A History.

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803261683
• ISBN-13: 978-0803261686
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #850,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars America's Best World War I Novel, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Through the Wheat (Lost American Fiction) (Hardcover)

If asked to name a World War I novel most Americans would almost certainly say "All Quiet on the Western Front". Thanks to our rather uniform public education system, Remarque's novel has earned a place in American culture as the quintessential novel of The Great War. It deserves its reputation as a landmark of 20th century literature, but unfortunately its success contributed to the disapearance from memory of Thomas Boyd's "Through the Wheat". Without moralizing about the cost of war, Boyd brilliantly depicts its horrors and their effects on the psyche of a young American Marine. If you want to understand the Combat experience -- the noise, dirt, distraction, sweat, blood, stench of war -- this is a novel you must read. It is a tragedy that it is no longer in print.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Marine's daily endurance of WWI, March 8, 2009

By 

Thomas S. Harrison "MD,PhD" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Through the Wheat: A Novel of the World War I Marines (Paperback)

This is an outstanding historical and literary view of the horrors of life and death for US Marines in the "Great War". The author closely models his novel on his actual experiences with the Sixth Marines in some of the heaviest fighting by American forces in Belleau Wood, Soissons and many smaller battles. You feel the oppressive numbing fear of constant shellfire and random death, poison gas, spoiled food and the constant dirt and mud that was trench life and warfare in WWI. Lack of sleep, bad food when you could get food, and the bleak landscape of no-mans land with unburied corpses are the back drop to an excellent exploration of how men continue fighting long past their initial thoughts of patriotism and "glory" of cause. This book favorably compares and to some surpasses, Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage". This is a classic of men at war.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Realistic Picture of WWI, July 3, 2007

By 

G. Wynkoop "koop" (FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Through the Wheat: A Novel of the World War I Marines (Paperback)

Started out slow, Boyd seemed caught up in using as many adjectives as a sentence could hold. Once I got past that and was able to focus on his story it flowed easily. His accurate depiction of what it was like for the average Marine was outstanding. A very good read of USMC WWI history.