One Young Man: The Simple and True Story of a Clerk Who Enlisted in 1914, Who Fought on the Western Front for Nearly Two Years, Was Severely Wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and is Now on His Way Back to His Desk.
1917
One Young Man: The Simple and True Story of a Clerk Who Enlisted in 1914, Who Fought on the Western Front for Nearly Two Years, Was Severely Wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and is Now on His Way Back to His Desk.
1917
There is something unbearable about the ordinariness of this book, and that is exactly its power. First published in 1917, while the Great War still raged, this is the story of a clerk named Reginald Davis who enlisted in 1914, fought on the Western Front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk. No heroics. No grand speeches. Just the quiet, devastating reality of one young man who did his duty and came back broken. The title says everything: One Young Man. Not an army, not a generation, not a statistic. One. The book captures the particular anguish of the clerk-turned-soldier, the office worker thrust into the mud and horror of the Somme, and the peculiar British stoicism that refuses to call such a transformation remarkable. It is a document of its moment, published while the killing continued, offering not analysis or politics but simply the testimony of someone who was there and somehow survived. For readers who want to understand what the war actually felt like to the ordinary men who fought it, there is no more direct a path than this.
Editions
X-Ray
“My sisters were the coolest people I knew, and still are. I have always aspired to be like them and know what they know. My sisters were the color and noise in my black-and-white boy world-how I pitied my friends who had brothers. Boys seemed incredibly tedious and dim compared to my sisters, who were always a rush of energy and excitement, buzzing over all the books, records, jokes, rumors and ideas we were discovering together. I grew up thriving on the commotion of their girl noise, whether they were laughing or singing or staging an intervention because somebody was wearing stirrup pants. I always loved being lost in that girl noise.””
— Unknown
“But bringing people together is what music has always done best.””
— Unknown
“It was like trying to break up with the color orange, or Wednesday, or silent e. It was the most passionate and tumultuous relationship I'd ever known.””
— Unknown
“Morrissey was my Mrs. Garrett, the house mother from the Facts of Life, a soothing adult figure giving me words of wisdom.””
— Unknown
“Not being able to protect her from things was the most frightening thing I'd ever felt, and it kicked in as soon as we got together. With every year we spent together, I became more conscious that I now had an infinitely expanding number of reasons to be afraid. I had something to lose.””
— Unknown
“The Stones suggested that if you dabble in decadence, you could turn into a devil-worshipping junkie. Paul McCartney suggested that if you mess around with girl worship, you could turn into a husband. So Paul was a lot scarier.””
— Unknown
“By the time you're an adult, you're used to seeing your friends disappear into their five-year plans. They drop out to get married, have babies, go to grad school, get divorced. They start a band or enter the penal system. They vanish for years at a time - some come back, some don't. Some of them you wait for and some you let go. Sometimes the only way they come back is in a song.””
— Unknown
“Monogamous musicians are like vegan hockey players.””
— Unknown
“I was too young to know adult life is full of accidents and interrupted moments and empty beds you climb into and don't climb out of.””
— Unknown
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/one-young-man-the-simple-and-true-story-of-a-clerk-who-enlisted-in-1914-who-foug-4fa0d94a-9b1d-460d-9548-eec97265b6fc"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read One Young Man: The Simple and True Story of a Clerk Who Enlisted in 1914, Who Fought on the Western Front for Nearly Two Years, Was Severely Wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and is Now on His Way Back to His Desk. by Unknown free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/one-young-man-the-simple-and-true-story-of-a-clerk-who-enlisted-in-1914-who-foug-4fa0d94a-9b1d-460d-9548-eec97265b6fc)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/one-young-man-the-simple-and-true-story-of-a-clerk-who-enlisted-in-1914-who-foug-4fa0d94a-9b1d-460d-9548-eec97265b6fc][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read One Young Man: The Simple and True Story of a Clerk Who Enlisted in 1914, Who Fought on the Western Front for Nearly Two Years, Was Severely Wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and is Now on His Way Back to His Desk. by Unknown free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/one-young-man-the-simple-and-true-story-of-a-clerk-who-enlisted-in-1914-who-foug-4fa0d94a-9b1d-460d-9548-eec97265b6fcCite this book
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Unknown. One Young Man: The Simple and True Story of a Clerk Who Enlisted in 1914, Who Fought on the Western Front for Nearly Two Years, Was Severely Wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and is Now on His Way Back to His Desk.. Lex, lex-books.com/book/one-young-man-the-simple-and-true-story-of-a-clerk-who-enlisted-in-1914-who-foug-4fa0d94a-9b1d-460d-9548-eec97265b6fc.Unknown (1917). One Young Man: The Simple and True Story of a Clerk Who Enlisted in 1914, Who Fought on the Western Front for Nearly Two Years, Was Severely Wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and is Now on His Way Back to His Desk.. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/one-young-man-the-simple-and-true-story-of-a-clerk-who-enlisted-in-1914-who-foug-4fa0d94a-9b1d-460d-9548-eec97265b6fcUnknown. One Young Man: The Simple and True Story of a Clerk Who Enlisted in 1914, Who Fought on the Western Front for Nearly Two Years, Was Severely Wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and is Now on His Way Back to His Desk.. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/one-young-man-the-simple-and-true-story-of-a-clerk-who-enlisted-in-1914-who-foug-4fa0d94a-9b1d-460d-9548-eec97265b6fc.