Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Ernie Pyle: Classic reporting


Lately, I’ve been revisiting one of my favorite authors Ernie Pyle. While Pyle is most notably remembered as the great WWII correspondent I’ve been recently reading the work of his pre-war roving reporting days.

The articles have widely varying subjects as Pyle traveled the expanses of the North American continent searching out what most interested him.  Through his writing he always manages to make those points that interest him a deep interest of mine.    

Pyle couldn’t have written these articles at any other time.  It’s the time of the Greatest Generation; much of what characterizes America was witnessed and discovered by Pyle on his roaming of America.  He visited and conversed with Gold Rush prospectors in the Yukon, visited the Leaper colony in Hawaii, witnessed the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression, saw the Mid West eaten barren by locusts, interviewed George Washington Carver, and much more. 

But of all these places and their circumstances I always get the sense that what interested Pyle the most was the people. I love his descriptions of people: their appearance, the way they move, the way they talk, and what they say. 

There’s the particularly jolly priest he met at the leaper colony: “When he talked he talked all over; it took a least six square feet for Father Peter to talk in. He jumped, struck attitudes, and laughed loudly and frequently.”

There’s also Josie Pearl a prospector in Nevada who made and lost multiple fortunes hunting for silver and gold: “Her dress was calico, with an apron over it; on her head was a farmer’s straw hat, on her feet a mismatched pair of men’s boots, and on her left hand and wrist—$6,000 worth of diamonds…She was what I like to think of as the Old West—one day worth $100,000 dollars, the next day flat broke, cooking in a mining camp at $30 a month.”

Pyle writes of the America and the Americans of another time.

Below is a previously written post dealing with Pyle’s contributions as a war correspondent during WWII.

Ernie Pyle: "War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the Earth."

Ernie Pyle (center, passing cigarettes) with infantry men.

I wanted to share a bit about a ‘hero’ of mine (for lack of better words).  I am a student of journalism and love the work and character of Ernie Pyle.  Ernie Pyle was a journalist most influential in his coverage of the front lines of World War II. 
            Pyle started as a roving reporter traveling and writing to his readers sharing his experiences abroad.  Pyle was also an aviation reporter in the early days of flight.
            The reason Pyle was so loved by his readers was the personal approach he took in his reporting and interviewing.  He was soft spoken and a great listener and his interviewees very easily opened up to him.  In his personal style of writing he set his readers in the same place and experience he was witnessing himself.  His vivid, intimate reporting style found its highest purpose in war corresponding. 
            With the war taking place overseas many families were sending their sons, brothers and husbands to far away places and wanted to feel connected to them.  Pyle provided that connection. 
            Pyle’s reporting was more intimate and more focused on the daily lives of the troops than it was on the victories, movements and generals.  He would often comment on the strangeness of war.  Those back in the U.S. needed that connection to there loved ones.
            While reporting on the war Pyle lived and traveled with the troops on the front lines.  Pyle and the troops developed a affectionate relationship for each other.
            Reporting on the front lines has its risks and after doing tours in Italy, Africa and all over Europe Pyle went on to report on the war in the Pacific and was killed by a Japanese machine gun bullet that went through his helmet.  At his death Pyle was so loved by the American public that it is felt by many that his death overshadowed the death of President Roosevelt just six days before.
            You must read his work.  Here are some samples: