Cover detail of "Poets of World War II" edited by Harvey Shapiro
Poetry from World War II Story aired: Tuesday, April 08, 2003
Millions of people around the world died in World War II, and hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers gave their lives. The enormity is difficult to grasp, but some times it takes just a few well chosen words.
A new anthology coming out this month includes 120 poems from World War II. The book is part of the Library of America's new series of poetry collections and is called, simply, "Poets of World War II."
The editor of the collection is poet Harvey Shapiro. During World War II, he served with the 50th Air Force, 347th Squadron, 99th Bomb Group based in Italy. He flew 35 missions over Germany and Austria as radio gunner in a B-17.
Harvey Shapiro is former editor of the New York Times Magazine and Book Review, and he joins us from the studios of WNYC.
