Ernie Pyle

Pyle, Ernie - (Ernest Taylor Pyle), 1900–1945, American journalist, b. Dana, Ind. After working (1923–32) as a reporter, an editor, and an aviation writer, he became managing editor of the Washington Daily News. In 1935 he began writing a column syndicated by the Scripps-Howard chain to about 200 newspapers. Pyle captured America's affection by writing about the lives and hopes of typical citizens. During World War II he served as a war correspondent in Europe, N Africa, and the Pacific. He became the most popular of all correspondents, writing about the experiences of enlisted men rather than about battles or the exploits of officers. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished correspondence in 1944, and the next year he was killed by Japanese machine gun fire on Ie Shima. His columns were reprinted in Ernie Pyle in England (1941), Here Is Your War (1943), Brave Men (1944), Last Chapter (published posthumously, 1946), and Home Country (prewar writing published posthumously, 1947).

See biographies by L. G. Miller (1950) and J. E. Tobin (1997); D. Nichols, ed., Ernie's War (1987).

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