January 2011

This March, Simon & Schuster will publish Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America’s Past (and Each Other) , a fascinating anthology edited by Mark C. Carnes in which historians offer essays on historical novels and the authors of these novels reply to them. In it, Elliott West speaks with warmth and appreciation of Lonesome Dove , the definitive Western novel of recent years (although he does wonder how its cowboys drove their charges north without encountering the tracks of the Union Pacific). In his brief response, Larry McMurtry tells of the genesis of his 1985 book.

“In no single area of the war was the overwhelming advantage possessed by the Federal government so ruinous to Southern hopes,” the historian Bruce Catton wrote of Civil War sea power. You can learn why at the National Civil War Naval Museum, in Columbus, Georgia, which opens on March 9, the 139th anniversary of the pivotal standoff between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimack at Hampton Roads. Visitors to the 40,000-square-foot museum can see a replica of the ironclad CSS Albemarle ; stand above the bow of the actual CSS Jackson , recovered from the Chattahoochee River; or clamber onto a replica of the USS Hartford , the flagship of Adm. David Farragut’s fleet during the capture of New Orleans.

Both the Army and Navy rejected him on health grounds in 1940. When he finally won over the Navy, three months before Pearl Harbor, he had to beg to escape routine desk jobs and land a position on an actual boat. He finished the war a lowly lieutenant, junior grade. But John F. Kennedy can now finally take his place among the five-star generals Omar Bradley and Dwight Eisenhower and the four-stars Colin Powell and George Patton—as G.I. Joe’s newest recruit.

G.I. JFK ON EXHIBIT THE MAKING OF “LONESOME DOVE” THE BUYABLE PAST A Lincoln Face-lift? The 10 Greatest Jazz Records Eating the Past THE TASTE TEST SITES TO SEE Women on Wheels EDITORS’ BOOKSHELF SCREENINGS W vs. Q

As the owner of the Birthplace and Museum of Margaret Tobin Brown, in Hannibal, Missouri, I should point out an error on page 73 of the article about Leadville, Colorado (“Silver City,” April 2000). Johnny and Molly Brown existed only in Hollywood, and Mr. Brown wasn’t a silver king. James Joseph (J.J.) Brown never went by the name Johnny, hut he got rich serving as engineer of the Little Johnny gold mine in Leadville. Margaret never went by the name Molly, although this famous heroine of the Titanic has been known as Molly ever since Gene Fowler used that name in a book he wrote after her death in 1932.

In regard to “What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?” in the September 2000 “Time Machine,” many seamen of both American and British navies of the lateeighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries would have been quite surprised if their daily ration of “grog” was “diluted whiskey” rather than the rum and water that was actually provided.

Reading “Colonel McCormick’s War” in the April 2000 American Heritage and turning to page 96, I saw an old friend pictured. Then I read the caption. While the tank is indeed a “Chaffee” (named after Maj. Gen. Adna R. Chaffee), it is not an M-26 but an M-24; the M-26 was the “Pershing.” The Chaffee came into the war rather late, first seeing major action in the Battle of the Bulge. Classed as a light tank, it was armed with a 75mm cannon and thus easily outgunned many medium tanks of the era. Further, being powered by twin Cadillac engines, it went from zero to 40plus mph very quickly. It could quite literally shoot and scoot.

I joined the Army in 1950 and, after basic training, was sent to Fort Knox for armor training. All of us thus engaged expected to immediately be sent to Korea. Some did go. However, about 20 of us were kept at Fort Knox and became instructors on the M-4 Sherman — a machine that I hated —and on the M-24. We were all eventually sent to Korea. I wound up in the 64th Tank Battalion—in the reconnaissance platoon as a gunner on an M-24!

Your May/June 2000 issue was well worth keeping. For Stephen E. Ambrose and veterans of World War II, the opening of the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Eouisiana, was a long-awaited dream come true. It is a special day for me also. I am the proud daughter of Andrew Jackson Higgins, whose landing craft and PT boats helped make a victory possible for the Allies in World War II.

25 YEARS AGO

December 23, 1975: President Gerald R. Ford signs the Metric Conversion Act, which plans for a voluntary nationwide adoption of the metric system of measurements.

50 YEARS AGO

December 5, 1950: Chinese forces pressure the U.S. 8th Army into abandoning Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Within a month, the Chinese will take Seoul, the South Korean capital, and threaten the entire peninsula.

December 19, 1950: Gen. Dwight D. Elsenhower takes a leave of absence from his job as president of Columbia University to become the commander of NATO.

75 YEARS AGO

December 12, 1925: The world’s first motel, appropriately named the Motel Inn, opens its doors in San Luis Obispo, California.

125 YEARS AGO