Ernie Pyle

Ernie Pyle (Ernest Taylor Pyle), 1900-1945, American journalist, b. Dana, Ind. After working (1923-32) as a reporter, an editor, and an aviation writer, he became managing editor of the Washington Daily News. In 1935 he began writing a column syndicated by the Scripps-Howard chain to about 200 newspapers. Pyle captured America's affection by writing about the lives and hopes of typical citizens. During World War II he served as a war correspondent in Europe, N Africa, and the Pacific. He became the most popular of all correspondents, writing about the experiences of enlisted men rather than about battles or the exploits of officers. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished correspondence in 1944, and the next year he was killed by Japanese machine gun fire on Ie Shima. His columns were reprinted in Ernie Pyle in England (1941), Here Is Your War (1943), Brave Men (1944), Last Chapter (published posthumously, 1946), and Home Country (prewar writing published posthumously, 1947).

Bibliography: See biographies by L. G. Miller (1950) and J. E. Tobin (1997); D. Nichols, ed., Ernie's War (1987).

Pyle, Ernie (1900–1945), American journalist of World War II.A native of Dana, Indiana, Pyle worked on a local paper before joining the Washington [D.C.] Daily News in 1923, initially covering aviation and later serving as managing editor. In 1935, Pyle began a syndicated column for the Scripps‐Howard organization, describing his experiences motoring around the United States. Over the next four years, his stories focused on the lives of average citizens.

In 1940, Pyle received his first wartime assignment from Scripps‐Howard, covering the Blitz in England. Two years later, he started reporting on the North Africa Campaign and followed U.S. combat troops to Sicily, Italy, and France. Widely respected by both the public and the average G.I., Pyle succeeded in conveying a sense of the hardship, fear, and endurance of the individual soldier, with a special focus on the combat infantryman. At the height of his fame, his columns were carried by over 400 daily newspapers. In 1944, he won the Pulitzer Prize, and Time magazine featured him on its cover.

In 1945, Pyle, at the behest of the navy, shifted to covering the Pacific theater. He was killed by enemy fire on the island of Ie Shima near Okinawa on 18 April 1945.
[See also News Media, War, and the Military.]

Bibliography

Frederick S. Voss , Reporting the War: The Journalistic Coverage of World War II, 1994.
James Tobin , Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II, 1997.

G. Kurt Piehler