In Flanders Fields: The Story of John McCrae

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia and is the
co-editor of Four Realities: Poets of Northern B.C.

In Flanders’ Fields is a brief account of the life and times of the author of the most famous poem to come out of World War I. In John McCrae, Prescott provides us with a particular example of a well-known phenomenon: the man who was raised during the Edwardian summer, who was swept up in pro-war enthusiasm, who was led to disillusionment by the horror and incompetence he witnessed, and who died at the Front, a hero to those back home, though despising them in his heart. The letters that McCrae wrote from the Front show his attitudes as they changed. In the end he, like many others, was alienated from the society at home, hated the Germans with a passion, and felt comfortable only with his comrades in arms. With the exception of “In Flanders Fields,” the letters are a far more eloquent statement of what was in McCrae’s heart than are the poems quoted by Prescott.

This book is written in a clear and workmanlike expository manner. It is very well illustrated. It should have wide popular appeal.