Ernie Pyle

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Ernie Pyle

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

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).

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Pyle, Ernie

The Oxford Companion to American Military History | 2000 | | © The Oxford Companion to American Military History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

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

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John Whiteclay Chambers II. "Pyle, Ernie." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford University Press. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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John Whiteclay Chambers II. "Pyle, Ernie." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford University Press. 2000. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O126-PyleErnie.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article After 63 years, death photo of famed WWII reporter Ernie Pyle surfaces
News Wire article from: AP Worldstream; 2/4/2008
Free Article Journalist, comrade: remembering Ernie Pyle.(Heritage)
Magazine article from: Spokesman Magazine; 2/1/2005
Free Article Ernie's war: the best of Ernie Pyle's World War II dispatches.
Magazine article from: National Review; 12/5/1986

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ERNIE PYLE DIED 50 YEARS AGO
Newspaper article from: Post-Tribune (IN); 4/2/1995; 700+ words ; PHOTO - 2 ERNIE PYLE Ernie Pyle, center, talks with Marines on a Navy transport ship while en route to the invasion of Okinawa in 1945. (ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO) THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED VERSION. WORLD...
Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II.
Magazine article from: Columbia Journalism Review; 11/1/1997; ; 700+ words ; ...We can easily imagine the young Ernie Pyle coming to the same conclusion in...s beautifully written new study, Ernie Pyle's War, that Tobin can read journalist...that excludes all others." The Ernie Pyle story has been told before: once...
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Newspaper article from: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; 11/4/1997; ; 700+ words ; Ernie Pyle's War. By James Tobin. The Free Press. 312 pages. $25. Ernie Pyle was a very good writer who lived a very...News and has a doctorate in history. "Ernie Pyle's War" began as his doctoral dissertation...
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Newspaper article from: Charleston Daily Mail; 2/4/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...not just another fallen GI; it is Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated war correspondent...striking and painful image, but Ernie Pyle wanted people to see and understand...author of a 1997 biography, "Ernie Pyle's War," and Owen V. Johnson...
Death photo of Ernie Pyle materializes after 63 years
Newspaper article from: Oakland Tribune; 2/4/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...not just another fallen GI; it is Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated war correspondent...striking and painful image, but Ernie Pyle wanted people to see and understand...author of the 1997 biography "Ernie Pyle's War," and Owen V. Johnson...
New Ernie Pyle Center Opens in Indiana // WWII Journalist Changed War Reporting
Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times; 4/9/1995; ; 700+ words ; ...Infantry Division lost a buddy, Ernie Pyle, 18 April 1945." Now his hometown...1 million visitors center at the Ernie Pyle State Historic Site - set to open...bag stenciled with the words, "Ernie Pyle, War Correspondent." Many of Pyle...
Death photo surfaces of famed Ernie Pyle
Newspaper article from: Oakland Tribune; 2/4/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...not just another fallen GI; it is Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated war correspondent...striking and painful image, but Ernie Pyle wanted people to see and understand...author of the 1997 biography "Ernie Pyle's War," and Owen V. Johnson...
Remembering Ernie Pyle, 60 years after his death
Newspaper article from: Oakland Tribune; 4/13/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...that it was hardly noteworthy -- Ernie Pyle was reluctantly heading toward yet...friend." It has been 60 years since Ernie Pyle's death but his legend persists...Pollard, acting manager for the Ernie Pyle State Historic Site, which draws...
ERNIE PYLE MUSEUM EXPANDED
Newspaper article from: Post-Tribune (IN); 3/28/1996; 700+ words ; ...the little white farmhouse where Ernie Pyle was born tried to do too much. It...Recently, a new day dawned for the Ernie Pyle State Historic Site. Two World War...Meredith and other old friends. ''Ernie Pyle's words will live as long as the...
Ernie Pyle: A trusted wartime source
Newspaper article from: Post-Tribune (IN); 4/17/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...Nobody is ever going to equal him (Ernie Pyle) because the conditions today are...wartime columns that Indiana native Ernie Pyle wrote from abroad. This one described...really struck me: 'If you could ask Ernie Pyle one question, what would it be...
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