Works by
James Jones
(Writer)
[November 6, 1921 - May 9, 1977]

Fiction

• WW II (1975)

• Viet Journal (1974)

• A Touch of Danger (1973)

• The Merry Month of May (1971)
  Paris. May. 1968. This is the Paris of the barricaded boulevards; of rebelling students' strongholds; of the literati; the sexual anarchists; the leftists -- written chillingly of a time in French history closely paralleling what America went through in the late 1960s. As the Revolution sweeps across Paris, the reader sees, feels, smells, and fears all the turmoil that was the May revolt, the frightening social quicksand of 1968.

• The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories (1968)
  For this first and only collection of his stories (out of print for more than 15 years), arranged chronologically, James Jones wrote, in addition to a general introduction, individual and very personal prefatory remarks that illuminate his development as a writer over 20 years, beginning in 1947. The 13 penetratingly sensitive, remarkably varied stories are about men, women, and children in circumstances ranging from war to marriage to childhood to courtship. Each story is distinguished by the classical simplicity, emotional resonance, and lasting impact that is the hallmark of the great short-story writer.

• Go to the Widow-Maker (1967)

• The Pistol (1959)
  As bombs begin to fall on Pearl Harbor, nineteen-year-old PFC Richard Mask is wearing a pistol, a .45 caliber automatic that makes him feel connected to the army of the Wild West and Custer's Cavalry. In the chaos of his first days and weeks of the war, as Mask and his company move from Schofield Barracks to the beaches of Oahu, then to a remote mountain pass, a struggle over the pistol dominates this novella's action, providing the pathos and savagery of the story.

• Some Came Running (1957)
  Movie (1958)  With Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra DVD VHS

From Here to Eternity Series

1. From Here to Eternity (1951)
   Diamond Head, Hawaii, 1941.  Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt is a champion welterweight and a fine bugler.  But when he refuses to join the company's boxing team, he gets "the treatment" that may break him or kill him.  First Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden knows how to soldier better than almost anyone, yet he's risking his career to have an affair with the commanding officer's wife.  Both Warden and Prewitt are bound by a common bond:  the Army is their heart and blood . . .and, possibly, their death.
   
   In this magnificent but brutal classic of a soldier's life, James Jones portrays the courage, violence and passions of men and women who live by unspoken codes and with unutterable despair. . .in the most important American novel to come out of World War II, a masterpiece that captures as no ther the honor and savagery of men.
   Movie (1953), Miniseries (1979), TV Series (1980) -- Search DVD, VHS

2. The Thin Red Line (1962)
   The World War II classic by the bestselling author of From Here to Eternity and Whistle, now a major motion picture from 20th Century Fox.
   
   They are the men of C-for-Charlie Company--"Mad" 1st/Sgt. Eddie Welsh, S/Sgt. Don Doll, Pvt. John Bell, Capt. James Stein, Cpl. Fife, and dozens more just like them--infantrymen in "this man's army" who are about to land grim and white-faced on an atoll in the Pacific called Guadalcanal. This is their story, a shatteringly realistic walk into hell and back.
   
   In the days ahead some will earn medals; others will do anything they can dream up to get evacuated before they land in a muddy grave. But they will all discover the thin red line that divides the sane from the mad--and the living from the dead--in this unforgettable portrait that captures for all time the total experience of men at war.
   Movie (1964), Movie (1998) -- Search DVD,  VHS

3. Whistle (1978) -- completed by Willie Morris