Once an Eagle Paperback – June, 1997

America's fighting men have turned to Once an Eagle as a sourcebook for the military's core values since its publication at the height of the Vietnam War. The novel, following the careers of virtuous Sam Damon and opportunistic Courtney Massengale, is required reading for all members of the United States Marine Corps and frequently taught in leadership courses at West Point.

''A remarkable novel . . . Utterly engrossing. Myrer is a superb storyteller, one of the few gifted novelists now writing who cares about the art of narration and is a master of it . . . A grim, exciting, and almost overwhelming account of twentieth-century war. It is an astute study of the mind and character of a good general and a good man. And it is a brilliant inside views of the life of a career officer in peace and war.'' --New York Times

''An ambitious, magnificently vivid novel . . . Compelling. The battle scenes are among the finest I have ever read.'' --Atlantic

''At long last we have what critics have been saying was lost to modern novels--an honest-to-God hero . . . A natural.'' --Harper's

''I fully understand why Once an Eagle has become a classic novel of war and warriors. Sam Damon doesn't preach, he lives his values, and they are universal not only military.'' --General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, US Army (Ret.), commander-in-chief, Desert Storm

''In ironic contrast, the story moves from jungle warfare to drawing rooms on the Potomac, and back again . . . Goes to the heart of our century.'' --Chicago Sun-Times

''Once an Eagle deserves to rank with, or perhaps above, any one of those three truly great pieces of military fiction--Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage; Fix Bayonets! by Col. John W. Thomason, USMC; and What Price Glory, by Capt. Lawrence Stallings, USMC.'' --Armed Forces Journal

''Once an Eagle may be America's 'War and Peace' and Anton Myrer a contemporary Tolstoy.'' --Louisville Courier-Journal

''Reflects skillful research in military areas as well as technical mastery of the writing craft . . . Through the gentle but courageous character of Damon, Myrer graphically describes the criminal, dirty, wasteful, savage immorality of war . . .The army career man will look on it as a monument.'' --Denver Post

''The most outstanding novel I have seen in long years. And it is far and away the best work of fiction with a military background I have ever read.'' --Journal of the Armed Forces

''The work of a man who has thought long and hard about the nature of war and has come up with something more than the simple truism that it's hell.'' --Life

''Inspects down to their most elusive motives those who have to make the agonizing command decisions.'' --Providence Journal

''In ironic contrast, the story moves from jungle warfare to drawing rooms on the Potomac, and back again . . . Goes to the heart of our century.'' --Chicago Sun-Times

''Once an Eagle deserves to rank with, or perhaps above, any one of those three truly great pieces of military fiction--Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage; Fix Bayonets! by Col. John W. Thomason, USMC; and What Price Glory, by Capt. Lawrence Stallings, USMC.'' --Armed Forces Journal

''Once an Eagle may be America's 'War and Peace' and Anton Myrer a contemporary Tolstoy.'' --Louisville Courier-Journal

''Reflects skillful research in military areas as well as technical mastery of the writing craft . . . Through the gentle but courageous character of Damon, Myrer graphically describes the criminal, dirty, wasteful, savage immorality of war . . .The army career man will look on it as a monument.'' --Denver Post

''The most outstanding novel I have seen in long years. And it is far and away the best work of fiction with a military background I have ever read.'' --Journal of the Armed Forces

''The work of a man who has thought long and hard about the nature of war and has come up with something more than the simple truism that it's hell.'' --Life

''Ins --Providence Journal --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.