A Better Legend: From the World War II Letters of Jack and Jane Poulton - Hardcover

In the spring of 1987, a few weeks after her husband's death, Jane Weaver Poulton was rummaging through the sea chest Jack made on Tulagi Island and found a mass of letters she had thought lost many years before - letters she and Jack had written to each other during World War II, when he was stationed in the South Pacific. Out of a correspondence comprising more than five hundred letters, she crafted "A Better Legend" - a title she takes from the saying that lovers make better legends than do heroes. This personal account, Mrs Poulton tells us, is "not a 'war' book in the sense of blood and battles, but the story of two people separated for three years of the war except for two brief leaves. Many marriages were wrecked by this, but in our case we came to a better understanding of ourselves and our marriage". Warm and engaging, the letters offer not only a privileged glimpse of a young couple's developing relationship, but also a portrait of American society in the 1940s. The letters reveal Jane Poulton's quiet evolution from protected housewife to independent working woman and civil rights activist. Jack's letters show his increasing confidence as an engineer and give his thoughtful observations of the war. As Jane Poulton writes in her preface to the book, "War brings out the best and worst in us, and legends are created not always on the battlefield". "A Better Legend" should appeal to anyone interested in an accessible account of recent world - and domestic - history.