From Library Journal
It is fortunate for us that Zellmer, a broadcast writer and producer at CBS, saved his wartime letters to his former choreographer, Martha Graham. These letters of a Graham company dancer turned airman portray his life as a B-24 bomber pilot in the Pacific theater of World War II, where he flew 46 missions. It's all thereAthe endless boredom, brief moments of excitement, and unexpected death. The expressive style is poetic: "I breathe only when attached to the plane's oxygen system. My heart beats only if the propellers are turning. I hear only when the radio is turned on. The plane's wings are my arms; the automatic pilot is my brain." While probably not a required purchase for World War II collections, this vivid, poetic book is definitely worthwhile.ARichard S. Nowicki, Emerson Vocational H.S., Buffalo, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“It is fortunate for us that Zellmer, a broadcast writer and producer at CBS, saved his wartime letters to his former choreographer, Martha Graham....It's all there--the endless boredom, brief moments of excitement, and unexpected death....[T]his vivid, poetic book is definitely worthwhile.”–Library Journal
“Zellmer presents his story in a polished fashion with numerous details of interest even to those who have read widely in the field.”–Wisconsin Magazine of History
“To read his book, which connects the experience of a dancer to the events of World War II, is to expand to our knowledge of both American history and our understanding of how a particular artist related to the extraordinary events around him.”–New York Times
“We can see how the discipline of the dance contributed to his success as an airman--another occupation demanding teamwork with meticulous precision....He accepted hardship and danger uncomplainingly, and has left a record of his experiences that will be of intense interest, not only to historians of the campaign, but to anyone interested in knowing what it was like to be a young American in the 1940s.”–from the foreword by Sir Michael Howard Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University
“Zellmer is no throwback, no Rupert Brooke or Siegfried Sassoon for whom the war is a kind of backdrop. He understands himself as a pilot, member of an air crew and a squadron, who has interrupted his life to drop bombs. But his identity as an artist informs his perceptions throughout, and provides a perspective on the Pacific War that is unusual enough to be called unique.”–Dennis Showalter Professor of History, United States Military Academy
“Zellmer has captured the smells of the tropics, the color of clouds and sunsets, the memories of home and those far away, and the loyalties that men engaged in a fierce struggle for survival must cherish. He has recaptured for our technological age, where all take for granted the experiences, sounds, and sensations of flight, the feelings of another age where flight, even under the conditions of fear and terror, brought a sense of awe and beauty to those who flew.”–from the foreword by Williamson Murray Professor of Military History, US Army War College
“Zellmer presents his story in a polished fashion with numerous details of interest even to those who have read widely in the field.”–
“To read his book, which connects the experience of a dancer to the events of World War II, is to expand to our knowledge of both American history and our understanding of how a particular artist related to the extraordinary events around him.”–
“We can see how the discipline of the dance contributed to his success as an airman--another occupation demanding teamwork with meticulous precision....He accepted hardship and danger uncomplainingly, and has left a record of his experiences that will be of intense interest, not only to historians of the campaign, but to anyone interested in knowing what it was like to be a young American in the 1940s.”–
“Zellmer is no throwback, no Rupert Brooke or Siegfried Sassoon for whom the war is a kind of backdrop. He understands himself as a pilot, member of an air crew and a squadron, who has interrupted his life to drop bombs. But his identity as an artist informs his perceptions throughout, and provides a perspective on the Pacific War that is unusual enough to be called unique.”–
“Zellmer has captured the smells of the tropics, the color of clouds and sunsets, the memories of home and those far away, and the loyalties that men engaged in a fierce struggle for survival must cherish. He has recaptured for our technological age, where all take for granted the experiences, sounds, and sensations of flight, the feelings of another age where flight, even under the conditions of fear and terror, brought a sense of awe and beauty to those who flew.”–
