Ernie Pyle became a well-known and widely read columnist during the Second World War. Following the path of the fighting from England to Africa, then to Italy and France, and finally to the Pacific, Pyle wrote the story of the ordinary soldier. His daily columns told of the details of war life, of danger, sadness, fear, heroism, and humor. Pyle was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for "Distinguished Correspondence" in 1943. He was killed in action on Ie Shima in the Pacific on 18 April 1945. At the time of his death, the column was carried by more than 300 daily and 400 weekly newspapers.

Born on a small farm near Dana, Indiana, Ernest Taylor Pyle grew up in an early twentieth-century midwestern rural setting. He was an only child and spent a great deal of time alone. Regularly assigned his share of chores, he fed chickens, plowed the fields from the age...