October 12 2018 Hello ,
I've missed you!
It feels great to get back in the routine of telling you a
good story each week!
And boy, I've a great one today.
But you have to keep it a secret.
I've launched myself on a new nonfiction book project. I know, I know, I said I was going to focus on writing a novel. And I am. I'm making progress on the
novel.
But when I find a great story, I can't pass it up! I don't have a contract yet. And the whole thing could fall through if I can't reach a deal on the photos.
So, mums the word! But I think you'll agree this should be a book. The Daring Woman
Who Showed America
the Human Face of War When Catherine Leroy arrived in South Vietnam she was 21. She came on a one-way ticket with nothing but a Leica M2 and a hundred bucks in her pocket. She was the only woman photographer in Vietnam.
The year was 1966, and the United States had just deployed nearly 400,000 troops to fight Viet Cong guerrillas and the North Vietnamese Army.
Cathy, as she liked to be
called, had no formal photographic training, but within months the young French woman became one of the most well-known photographers in the world. A year later she won a George Polk Award, one of the most prestigious in journalism. This would become one of Catherine Leroy's most well-known photographs. (above)
The image of a young marine medic responding to the shooting of a comrade was one of a sequence of
six, shot without motor-drive during the battle for Hill 881 near Khe Sanh.
Catherine wanted to "give war a human face." Embedded with U.S. Marines, she went along with the soldiers, slogging through the heat and mud of the jungle, crawling
through rice paddies, and becoming the only official photojournalist to parachute into
combat with American troops.
She was cool under fire, gravitated towards the biggest battles and wanted the closest shots from the thick of the fighting and dying.
"I was so scared sometimes, so scared; I really never thought I was going to get out of this alive,” she said. “But when it was all over, and when I was alive and unhurt, like the time when I had
a bullet in my canteen, the release of fear gives you a rush, a high of just being alive; you are alive like you've never felt alive before.”
Catherine also took photos of civilians, intimate depictions of refugees, these hiding in a cathedral as the fighting in their town went on for two days. Catherine wrote about this moment in an article for Life magazine. "There were about 4.000 refugees, most of them women and children and old men. There were about 10 wounded, and one woman
had just given birth to a baby. She lay on the floor in front of a confessional. Inside, the sound of all the people talking and the children crying was incredible, a rolling, continuous roar." Catherine stood five feet tall in her combat boots, weighted only 85 pounds, and was often seen with
blond pigtails.
She appeared an unlikely combat photographer, but perhaps she was born to it, coming into this world one night on the
out-skirts of Paris, in August 1944, her cries mingling with the sounds of heavy Allied bombing in the distance.
Catherine left Vietnam in 1969, but returned for the fall of Saigon in 1975, then covered
conflicts in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq.
She the first woman to win the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award recognizing photography "requiring exceptional courage and enterprise."
"I greatly admired her for her guts, and for her work, and for never losing her femininity," said John G. Morris, a member of the Overseas Press Club jury that voted to 1976 award to Catherine for her coverage of the civil war in Lebanon.
"She had an outsized courage and sense of conviction, which made her not easy to deal with for a lot of people," Fred Ritchin, a friend and colleague. "But she stuck by her guns and did what she felt was right."
Catherine Leroy died
in 2006 in Los Angeles from lung and pancreatic cancer. She was 60.
I'm pleased and relieved.
Kirkus Reviews said some really nice things!
"Importantly, Farrell brings in the voices of the women, which provides clarity and understanding of what they experienced.
She also
highlights the role of black newspapers in keeping the community informed about the difficulties they often faced. The text is richly supported with archival photographs.
The importance of this story is amplified by the inspiring forward by Maj. Gen. Marcia M. Anderson, Army (Ret.), who makes a direct link between the determined struggles of those described and the
achievements of African-American women in today's U.S. military." Read the entire review here...
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October 19, 2018 Yakima, WA Washington Library Association
Conference Friday, October 19 10am-11:15am Connecting with Local Children's Book Authors & Illustrators November 9, 2018 Austin, TX Manchaca Road Library, 5500 Manchaca Rd. Friday, November 9, 2018 1:30pm-2:30pm How American WWII Nurses
Survived Battle & Prison Camp in the Pacific Read a great book? Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe anytime
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To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com.
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