Fresh out of a Defiance, Ohio, high school, Thomas Boyd (1898-1935) joined the Marines to serve his country in the patriotic heat of the spring of 1917. In 1919 he came home from the war with a Croix de Guerre and a desire to write. He joined the “St. Paul News” as a journalist and opened a bookstore, whose patrons included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis. “Through the Wheat” appeared to immediate acclaim, with F. Scott Fitzgerald calling it “a work of art” and “arresting.” Boyd wrote five other works before he died in Vermont of a cerebral hemorrhage at age thirty-seven.

Fresh out of a Defiance, Ohio, high school, Thomas Boyd (1898-1935) joined the Marines to serve his country in the patriotic heat of the spring of 1917. In 1919 he came home from the war with a Croix de Guerre and a desire to write. He joined the St. Paul News as a journalist and opened a bookstore, whose patrons included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis. “Through the Wheat” appeared to immediate acclaim, with F. Scott Fitzgerald calling it “a work of art” and “arresting.” Boyd wrote five other works before he died in Vermont of a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 37.

Review
“One of the best ten books on World War I.” Carlos Baker, New York Times "Through the Wheat records the experiences of William Hicks of the marines, who never distinguished himself, but who never flinched... The effect of attack after attack, numberless tragedies day after day, unceasing danger, was to deaden his senses completely. His companions concluded, not without reason, that he was mad. He wandered about under fire with perfect composure—not because he was more brave than his fellows, but because he was psychologically dead... Thomas Boyd [has written] the least partisan and the most brilliant of doughboy reminiscences."—New York Times. “A remarkable first novel.”—The Nation

Introducing this Bison Books edition is Edwin Howard Simmons, a retired brigadier general in the United States Marine Corps and the author of “The United States Marines: A History.”