Suddenly We Didn't Want to Die: Memoirs of a World War I Marine

“This beautifully written and truly gripping war memoir is a significant addition to battlefield literature. A minor classic … An altogether remarkable job [comparable] to Crane, Remarque and Mailer. Deserves the widest possible audience.”–The Cleveland Plain Dealer “This immediate, eloquent report merit[s] comparison with Thomas Boyd’s Marine Corps [1923] classic Through the wheat.”–Publishers Weekly

“A real curiosity: a highly mannered World War I diary, published nearly 80 years after being written and 20 years after its author’s death. Bright snapshots abound…sometimes a young man’s lyricism takes over [but] the horror of war never departs. The diary has the faults one expects, and the promise one prays for. A fine addition to WWI literature.”–Kirkus Reviews

“A forthright, eloquent, and powerful memoir certain to become an enduring testament to the drama and tragedy of World War I. Threaded with no small measure of poetry, this superb memoir is sure to become a classic.”–Great Battles

“A plain but powerful tale … [in] vivid prose loaded with details that bring the horrors of World War I to life, he tells an exceptional new version of the old story of battle transforming a boy into a veteran.”–American Library Association Booklist

“To the ranks of Erich Maria Remarque, E.E. Cummings, John Dos Passos and Siegfried Sassoon, we must now add Elton Mackin … who, in a terse style reminiscent of Hemingway, [succeeds] in making someone unfamiliar with war truly now the frightfulness of the trenches and the greatness of the many men who fought in them.”–Marine Corps Gazette

Elton E. Mackin (1898-1974) joined the Marine Corps in early 1918 and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment on the second day of the battle of Belleau Wood, June 7, 1928. Mackin was awarded the U.S. Army Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, and two army Silver Star citations for his valor from Octoer 3-5, 1918, at Blanc-Mont.

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