Robert Lowry - The anarchy and boredom American soldiers experience in overseas army camps are brought to sharp focus in this tense, powerful novel about a photo reconnaissance wing in Italy

Robert Lowry, Casualty, New Directions, 1946.


The anarchy and boredom American soldiers experience in overseas army camps are brought to sharp focus in this tense, powerful novel about a photo reconnaissance wing in Italy. With the coming of the first snowfall to San Cialo, the war stops as far as the wing is concerned and the grievances and discontent of American GIs precipitate the action of a story tough, exciting, and new.


James Reidel: Robert Lowry (in Review of Contemporary Fiction)











In 1942 Lowry was drafted, and served three years in the US military during World War II, during which he saw combat in North Africa and Italy. After his discharge, he divorced his first wife, wrote critically acclaimed fiction (his fans included Ernest Hemingway), and penned an autobiographical novel (The Big Cage). Lowry was hired by James Laughlin as office manager at New Directions Publishing in September 1945. Leaving in Fall 1946 to concentrate on writing full-time, Lowry came under the influence of the editor George Davis and, for a time, flourished as rising new voice in American fiction. His books and short stories in the late 1940s and 1950s recounted his wartime experiences. He also wrote colorfully about life in New York's Greenwich Village during the emergence of the beatnik scene.
His published works included Casualty (1946), Find Me in Fire (1948; cover teaser: "She Was Young But Ripe For Love"), and The Violent Wedding (1953). His short stories appeared in Mademoiselle, New Directions, Collier's, Horizon, The American Mercury, and other periodicals. His short fiction was collected in three volumes, The Wolf That Fed Us (Doubleday, 1949), Happy New Year, Kamerades! (Doubleday, 1954), and Party of Dreamers (Fleet Publishing Corp., 1962).
During the 1950s Lowry penned book reviews for Time magazine and the Saturday Review of Literature. In 1950, he won the O. Henry Award for his short story "Be Nice to Mr. Campbell."^[1] Another Lowry story, "Layover in El Paso," was adapted for a 1959 feature film entitled That Kind of Woman, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sophia Loren.^[2]
Lowry also wrote screenplays for such dramatic TV series as Schlitz Playhouse, G.E. True Theater, Starlight Theater, and Actor's Studio.^[3]

Lowry had two short stories published in Mademoiselle magazine that were illustrated by his former Little Man Press partner, James Flora: "Little Baseball World" (September 1946) and "The Mammoth Molar" (September 1951).

- wikipedia.org