Somewhere Near the War 1919 Edgar B. Piper SIGNED Oregon ~ World War I ~ American Newspaper Editors' Trip to England, Ireland & France

Title: Somewhere Near the War: being an authentic and more or less diverting chronicle of the pilgrimage of twelve American journalists to the war zone, with some account of their adventures there and thereabouts.

Author: Edgar B. Piper, Editor of the Oregonian

Description: Inscribed by Edgar Piper on flyleaf. Boards in forest-green cloth, with gilt lettering on front cover. Internally clean. Eight illustrated plates. viii, 141 pages.

Twenty-six letters written in 1918 by an editor of a major American newspaper in the closing-days of the First World War. Piper was one of a dozen newspaper editors invited by the British government to come to Great Britain, Ireland and France to see the war at the front and the home-front efforts.

Piper's account begins with a description of the trans-Atlantic crossing on the troopship HMAT Orontes, noting the threat of U-boats, the growing impact of influenza, and the loss of one of the ships in the convoy (the HMS Otranto). He describes meetings with statesmen and the British royalty, an inspection of the royal fleet, a trip to Edinburgh, observations in various locations in war-torn France, including Vimy Ridge and the liberated city of Lille, meeting American soldiers (particularly Base Hospital No 46, with its personnel of nurses and officers from Oregon, and with other Oregonians in the war), and Armistice Day in London.

A couple chapters are devoted to Ireland and their visit to Belfast, giving some account of sectarian conflict between Sinn Fein and Ulsterism and the tension between the Irish and the British.

The author's inscription reads, ''To / John F Logan / In slight appreciation, / and as a small / token, of our / friendship / Edgar B Piper / Portland, Or. March 24, 1919''. John Logan (1868-1943) was a prominent attorney in Portland and a close friend of the author. He was pallbearer at Piper's wife's funeral and was quoted by the Oregonian in their obituary-memorial for Piper.

Oregon newspaperman, Edgar Bramwell Piper (1865-1928), succeeded Harvey Scott in 1910 as the Editor-in-Chief of The Oregonian, and held that office until his death in 1928.

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good+

Publisher: Published by The Morning Oregonian
Place: Portland, Oregon
Year: 1919

Keywords: World War I, Oregon, Oregonians, WWI, war correspondence,