SOURCE: An introduction to Ernie's War: The Best of Ernie Pyle's World War II Dispatches, edited by David Nichols, Random House, 1986, pp. 5-37.

In the following essay, Nichols provides an overview of Pyle's life, focusing on his relationship with his wife.

Ernie Pyle was born August 3, 1900, on a farm a few miles outside Dana, Indiana, the first and only child of Will and Maria Pyle. He was a senior in high school when a neighbor boy went off to World War I. Pyle wanted to go, too. Bored with the steady rhythms of farm life and enamored of men of action, he found the prospect of marching off to war in storied Europe irresistible. He shared with countless other Americans a love of parades and boisterous song. His parents, however, insisted that he finish high school, a big disappointment for a young romantic. Upon graduation he enrolled in...