Writers are supposed to know all the classics, but it wasn’t
until I started researching my Jake Gibbs series that I came across a book that
is an absolute must not only for history buffs but for anyone interested in memoirs
or biography: The Narrative of Joseph Plumb Martin.
Martin’s book – actually begun as an account to justify his
receiving a war pension – is one of the most honest first-person accounts of
war ever told. Martin was a private, and served in a good number of the major
campaigns. The work’s strength comes both from its candor and its simplicity;
there’s no attempt to adorn either the prose or the events.
Or heroes like George Washington, who doesn’t make the
impression you’d expect in these pages.
The book is long out of copyright and you can find
inexpensive reproductions in many places. If there’s one book on the
Revolution, or on war, that should be read, this is it.
The book continues to influence me - it was one of my main models when I helped Chris Kyle write American Sniper.
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