Best of
Biography-Memoir

1943

Bound for Glory


Woody Guthrie - 1943
    During the journey of discovery that was his life, he composed and sang words and music that have become a national heritage. His songs, however, are but part of his legacy. Behind him Woody Guthrie left a remarkable autobiography that vividly brings to life both his vibrant personality and a vision of America we cannot afford to let die.

Paris-Underground


Etta Shiber - 1943
    When the Nazis invade the city in the summer of 1940, Kitty and Etta begin working with the French Resistance to help British soldiers, left behind in France after its surrender, escape to freedom.

Malta Spitfire: The Diary of an Ace Fighter Pilot


George Beurling - 1943
    Twenty-five thousand feet above Malta--that is where the Spitfires intercepted the Messerschmitts, Macchis, and Reggianes as they swept eastward in their droves, screening the big Junkers with their bomb loads as they pummeled the island beneath: the most bombed patch of ground in the world. One of those Spitfire pilots was George Beurling, nicknamed "Screwball," who in fourteen flying days destroyed twenty-seven German and Italian aircraft and damaged many more. Hailing from Canada, Beurling finally made it to Malta in the summer of 1942 after hard training and combat across the Channel. Malta Spitfire tells his story and that of the gallant Spitfire squadron, 249, which day after day ascended to the "top of the hill" to meet the enemy against overwhelming odds. With this memoir, readers experience the sensation of being in the cockpit with him, climbing to meet the planes driving in from Sicily, diving down through the fighter screen at the bombers, dodging the bullets coming out of the sun, or whipping up under the belly of an Me for a deflection shot at the engine. This is war without sentiment or romance, told in terms of human courage, skill, and heroism--a classic of WWII military aviation.

Chicken Every Sunday: My Life with Mother's Boarders


Rosemary Taylor - 1943
    If you have room for some fun and old-fashioned enjoyment, Mother's sure to have room for you.

They Shall Not Have Me


Jean Hélion - 1943
    This serious adventure tale begins with Hélion’s infantry platoon fleeing from the German army and warplanes as they advanced through France in the early days of the war. The soldiers chant as they march and run, “They shall not have me!” but are quickly captured and sent to hard labor. Writing in English in 1943, after his risky escape to freedom in the United States, Hélion vividly depicts the sights, sounds, and smells of the camps, and shrewdly sizes up both captors and captured. In the deep humanity, humor, and unsentimental intelligence of his observations, we can recognize the artist whose long career included friendships with the likes of Mondrian, Giacometti, and Balthus, and an important role in shaping modern art movements. Hélion’s picture of almost two years without his art is a self-portrait of the artist as a man.

The Life of the Robin


David Lack - 1943
    

We Knew Mary Baker Eddy-First Series


Christian Science Publishing Society - 1943
    These addresses were delivered by those who had the priceless privilege of acquaintance with Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and who shared her warm friendship. These papers contain many intimate and interesting reminiscences of the type universally loved by Christian Scientists, for they tend to keep before the world the uniform kindness, love for humanity, and strength of purpose which characterized our great Leader. They are seven in number and are published as they originally appeared in the Christian Science Sentinel. This volume is the first in a series of four.