Collection World War

In his perilous journey home after the Trojan War, Odysseus must pass through the land of the Cyclops, encounter Circe the Enchantress, and face the terrible Charybdis and the six-headed serpent Scylla.

Here are the extraordinary writings of a generation who fought through a war of unprecedented destructive power, and who had to find new voices to express the horror of what they discovered. The great names - Owen, Sassoon - are fully represented, but there are also many poems by lesser-known or unexpected figures, ranging from serving soldiers like Isaac Rosenberg and Richard Aldington to women such as Edith Nesbit and Vera Brittain.

John F. Kraft was an 18-year-old college student when he received his draft notice in the spring of 1943. He had been brought up in a well-to-do family, and had lived in Chicago, New York, and London. He went through a year of testing and training, and justifiably expected a position of some privilege. As the demand for infantrymen grew, his training was halted, and he was sent to Alabama to join a unit comprised mostly of more local residents. These were not personalities he had dealt with before. Soon afterward, he found himself aboard a ship heading toward the foxholes of Germany.

When Adolf Hitler stormed to power in Germany during the 1930's, he experienced little opposition for his plans to rebuild his adopted homeland. The Hitler Conspiracies follows the remarkable plot that very nearly ended Hitler's reign of terror, proving beyond doubt that within his own ranks there were those prepared to risk their lives for that sake of humanity.