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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN num: 9780953867707
ISBN number: 0953867706
Label: J Whiting Books
Manufacturer: J Whiting Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 239
Printing Date: October 31, 2000
Publishing house: J Whiting Books
Sale Popularity Level: 471155
Studio: J Whiting Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In a major new biography, veteran military historian and WII biographer, Charles Whiting combines both talents to tell the tale of barefoot Texan share-cropper's son, who could barely read and write, but became not only the US Army's most decorated soldier in its 250 - year history, but also the star of forty Paramount produced movies: most of which are shown on TV screens around the world to this very day. The gentle-eyed, baby-faced hero had won every decoration the United States had to offer before he was eligible to vote and killed 240 enemy soldiers in the process. Luck made him a movie star. Always he tried to improve himself, but time and time again he was relegated to the 'horse operas', where as he wisecracked cynically, 'it was the same old movie, only they changed the colour of the horse.' But there was a price to pay for his heroism in drugs, nervous tension and Murphy's addiction to violence. Even as a middle-aged movie star, he always slept with a .45 beneath his pillow, plagued by nightmares of the war. Murphy had been an ordinary boy, who had volunteered to go to fight and did so with exceeding bravery in the last 'good war'. He paid highly for that bravery and sense of duty to a country which had given him nothing save 'malnutrition', as he used to quip. He was that last American Hero, who did as President Kennedy proclaimed, ' Don't ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.' Even before his young life had really commenced, he had become a legend. But in the end 'Tinseltown' and the 'feather merchants' of Hollywood broke him. As Time magazine commented on his death; 'Audie Murphy belonged to an earlier, simpler time, one in which bravery was a cardinal and killing was a virtue... We shall not see his like again.'
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Rated by buyers 
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This book is shabby compared to the book written by Harold B. Simpson:
Audie Murphy, American Soldier. This book was printed in two 5000 ea volumes editions. I have the Veterans edition. This book was published in 1975 and is now a very rare collectors item going for at least $75 and as high as $300.00
This book is worth every single detailed fottnoted page. It is a
complete expose on his early days, through his heroics on the battle fields. I am a penultimate fan of Audie Murphy, I served with the 3rd Infantry Division at Kitzingen, Wurzburg and Schweinfurt for over 7 years
of mu military career.
Charles Whiting would have done much better had he researched Simpsons book for the references written in the bibliography.
I would therefore giive Whiting a c- in journalism for this book.
Rated by buyers -
I used to watch his films when I was a child and I still am a fan of him mainly because of his heroism as a soldier. If you want to see his truly heroism just watch "To hell and back". There you are going to see what was "a true war hero" and understand that a soldier like this won't born in this world anymore. He was not an ordinary soldier, he was the best one. I agree that this book doesn't match his importance to American history, but where many men that have never attended to any war get rich writing books about their times as protesters in front of Lincoln Monument, it's easy to understand why American people want to forget this kind of a man. Mainly because he was not graduated in any great university. Soldiers have been dying for countries that don't give a damn for them at all. But as a very first book about this great American is a good choice, buy it.
Rated by buyers 
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A great book on a great American war hero. Not as detailed as I would have liked, but for it's size (239 pages) a good buy.
Rated by buyers 
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Considering he is America's most-decorated soldier, the story of Audie Murphy's combat career as told by Charles Whiting is amazingly dull. There is no convincing explanation given for Murphy's extraordinary actions, and the descriptions of the combat itself are lacking in detail, so it's hard to come up with a feeling for what might have been going on in Murphy's head at the time. It's possible, I suppose, that Murphy just stumbled into heroism like so many before and since, and that he is not really extraordinary at all. That doesn't seem to match the "troubled loner" picture that Whiting describes, but maybe that's all there is. And a final note on the editing ... I have never seen such poor production. The number of spelling mistakes, missing words and missing punctuation in this text are beyond belief. I would guess an average of one glaring mistake every 4 or 5 pages, sometimes in big bunches that make you wonder how this book was brought to market.
Rated by buyers -
Interesting but a little dry at very first since I am not a 'war buff' simply a Audie Murphy fan. I would, however, recommend it for it's content and pictures.
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