I was surprised recently to hear a friend credit A.J.
Liebling with ghost writing Omar Bradley’s A Soldier’s Story. That erroneous credit seems
to have nine lives, one of which perhaps has enabled it to gain currency on Wikipedia.
As far as I can tell, Liebling – certainly a fine writer and
journalist – had no role in writing the book. He did supply a forward for an
edition and also did at least one review that I know of, but if he made any
other contribution, it’s at least temporarily lost to history.
The real ghost writer of the book – credited in
the acknowledgements – was Bradley’s aide Chet Hansen, who served with the
general from Africa through VE Day, and remained with him later in the States.
Much of the book is based very closely on Hansen’s voluminous diary, a work
which is of huge importance to anyone interested in the American command during
the European ground war. (There are copies at West Point, where I used it, and
at Carlisle. It has never been published.)
There were other helpers and editors, but much of the prose
is Hansen speaking in Bradley’s voice. He deserves our thanks – and should get
credit as the “ghost.”
There are some Liebling connections beyond the Forward –
Liebling served as a war correspondent in Europe, and greatly admired Bradley,
as many did, for his straight-forward and unassuming ways. (He also gave
extremely detailed and candid briefings on operations, which would endear him
to any journalist’s heart.) I’m reasonably certain that he knew Hansen, and it’s
not out of the question that the two men might have discussed the book in depth.
But of course that’s not quite the same as being its author.
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