SOURCE: "Ernie Pyle's Last Book," in The Nation, Vol. 162, No. 25, June 22, 1946, pp. 754-56.

In the following essay, Mauldin, a fellow journalist during World War II, offers praise for Pyle's last book, Last Chapter.

It is standard operating procedure to find someone who knew Ernie Pyle to write reviews about his books. In the hundreds of reviews, each tried to be original, but it was hard because Ernie was not a man you kick up controversies over—if you knew him you loved him. He didn't hurt any feelings, follow any party lines, accuse any generals, nor were his personal feelings or motives a mystery. As far as I know not a single review was unfavorable to him.

Most of them said, "The last time I saw Ernie, he was sitting on a cot in his long-handled G.I. drawers, with a haunted look on his face, expecting to...