May 10, 2019
Hello ,
The contract is not signed, sealed nor delivered, so this is not for public release.
But I'm able to tell you we have reached agreement with Catherine Leroy's Estate for use of up to 40 of Catherine's photographs in my next book Eye On Vietnam.
The Daring Woman
Who Showed America
the Human Face of War
Catherine Leroy, a 21-year-old French woman was the only female photo journalist in Vietnam in 1966. “I bought a one-way ticket to Saigon, and flew off with $150 and a Leica M2 [camera],” she said.
She barely reached five feet in her combat boots, weighed only 85 pounds and wore her blond hair in pigtails. She had no formal photographic training and had never been more than a few hundred miles from home.
Few strictures like we have now confined war photographers in the 1960s.
Catherine traveled with marine soldiers on their slogs through the heat and mud of the jungle, crawled through rice paddies and became the only official photojournalist to parachute into combat with American troops.
My story about Catherine will focus tightly on her two years in Vietnam and her work there. The size and shape of the book will be similar to Standing Up Against Hate. I expect to sign the contract sometime in the next few months and then you can help me share the news. Until
then, mum's the word.
I'm enjoying a more relaxed schedule since the book tour ended. Also warm weather has finally arrived here!
I'm planting my garden, which is a great joy to me. I grow a small plot of vegetables, a few berry bushes and flowers around the yard and in pots.
I'm trying to find the words to describe
how it feels having my hands in the dirt, and I'm not coming up with the words.
It's definitely, great! That's not very descriptive. If you're a gardener, help me out! Hit reply and share how it feels for you.
Meanwhile, my summer writing room is open! Check it out in the photo.
My front porch might possibly be my favorite place on earth. I am going to finish my novel here this summer. That's my goal. Hold me to it. In the fall I will start working on the Catherine Leroy book, so I'm on deadline.
In this news again: The all-black 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion of the U.S. Women's Army Corps.
This battalion of 880 soldiers was the only large contingent of African American women to serve overseas in WWII. Today, five of these ground-breaking women remain alive, and one of them just got a huge surprise for her 99th birthday.
Elizabeth Barker Johnson graduated from Winston-Salem Teachers College on the G.I. Bill after the end of WWII.
But on graduation day she had to work and couldn't find anyone to sub for her. She missed walking in the ceremony the spring of 1949, and that
disappointment had remained with her through 30-years of teaching middle school and the decades following.
This past weekend her family and the school, now Winston-Salem State University, surprised Elizabeth with a party, and the chance to put on her cap and gown and walk across the stage to get her diploma.
“She’s faced war, she’s faced racism along the way as the only black school teacher in her area for a long time," her son David Johnson said. "She’s such a remarkable woman.”
For more on the five women from the battalion who remain alive today click here... For the full story of the #6888th and how members broke barriers for women and blacks in the U.S. Army, ask your library to order Standing Up Against Hate.
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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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