Letters from Nuremberg: My Father's Narrative of a Quest for Justice by Christopher J. Dodd

Fire often erases historical records and links to our families' pasts when it destroys buildings. The children of Thomas J. Dodd thought they had lost most of what he and his wife Grace had left them when a warehouse in Rhode Island burned. In the late 1980s, however, daughter Martha, brother of Christopher J. Dodd (the senator), discovered her parents letters in her basement. These included letters that Thomas Dodd had written to his wife from Nuremberg in 1945 and 1946, when he was a lawyer prosecuting Nazi officials for war crimes. It was a great find for the family and for readers.

Christopher Dodd organized and edited these letters to publish Letters from Nuremberg: My Father's Narrative of a Quest for Justice. His father had written almost daily for much of his 15 months, telling of the conditions in Europe, his loneliness, and the prosecution of the trial of 21 men accused of the following:

1. conspiracy to wage aggressive war
2. crimes against peace
3. war crimes
4. crimes against humanity

Other books on the trial at Nuremberg have more details about the defendants and actual accusations, but Dodd excels at describing the trial and the conduct of lawyers, judges, the press, and the public reacting to the news. His letters also describe the relationships between the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union (Dodd almost always says Russia) at a point before the Cold War had been recognized.

I enjoyed reading Dodd's intimate accounts, full of daily experiences and personal opinions. He comments on the fires that burned Europe's cities during the war. His letters will appeal to anyone who enjoyed Cronkite's War: His World War II Letters Home.

Dodd, Christopher J. with Lary Bloom. Letters from Nuremberg: My Father's Narrative of a Quest for Justice. Crown, 2007. 373p. ISBN 9780307381163.

Cronkite's War: His World War II Letters Home by Walter Cronkite IV and Maurice Isserman

Embedding journalists with military units in the Iraq War was not really a new thing in 2003. Walter Cronkite, then a print reporter with United Press, closely covered the U.S. Eighth Air Force during its 1943-1944 bombing campaign of German military and industrial targets. He got to know many of the air force officers and some of the young pilots, many of whom died on missions. He even flew with a few missions before UP forbad such dangerous work.

Cronkite was young and recently married when the U.S. joined the war. Despite the danger of living in often-bombed London, he eagerly accepted the assignment, leaving with the intention of writing his wife Betsy every day. He discovered that he stayed too busy to do that, but he did send frequent typed letters, V-mail, and telegrams back to her. His grandson, one of the authors of Cronkite's War: His World War II Letters Home, Walter Cronkite IV, read scores of these letters at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum at the University of Texas at Austin.

In Cronkite's War, the authors transcribe letters with clarifying commentaries, adding stories published by UP newspapers. In the letters, the correspondent told his wife a bit about the war and much about finding an apartment, being cold and hungry, entreating other journalists, running out of typewriter ribbons, and how to follow a lead to a story. He expressed his loneliness and schemed to get her a newspaper position in London and later on the continent. The letters ended when he got his wish.

The daily reports in Cronkite's War are a bit repetitive, as letters can be, but they do impart the experience of being separated from one's family. The book will appeal to a variety of readers, many of whom do not regularly read about war.

Cronkite, Walter IV and Maurice Isserman. Cronkite's War: His World War II Letters Home. National Geographic, 2013. 318p. ISBN 9781426210198.

The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien

Did you know that Father Christmas can fill about a thousand stockings per minute? He is fast, but he still needs all the time zones to get gifts to children round the world. He has to plan ahead. He is helped by the elves, of course, but his primary assistant is North Polar Bear. Sometimes, North Polar Bear suffers untimely accidents, adding much drama to the annual toy distribution, but he is a loveable old bear who fixes the sleigh and cares for the reindeer. I know all of this from reading The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Tolkien began writing annual letters that his children would find on Christmas morning in 1920 when his son was only three. For the next twenty years, they read Father Christmas's stories which were often accompanied by colorful illustrations in envelops with unique North Pole postal stamps. One year the price of postage was two kisses. I can imagine the excitement of finding these letters each year. They must have been read and reread and discussed by John, Michael, Christopher, and Priscilla Tolkien.

When you read them (as you must), notice that the North Pole is a little like Middle Earth. There are Goblins, Elves, and Men (Snowmen and Snowboys). It is also like 1920s England, where Father Christmas, North Polas Bear, and the bear cousin celebrate St. Stephen's Day and Boxing Day. In 1931, the world at large is acknowledged, as Father Christmas explains that he sent fewer toys as he spent much of his time helping poor and starving people.

I wish I had thought to follow Tolkien's example when Laura was little. I hope there are still storytelling parents and grandparents to take up the task. I'm sure there are children who might enjoy charming Christmas stories. Read The Father Christmas Letters for inspiration.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Father Christmas Letters. Houghton Mifflin, 1976. ISBN 0395249813.

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart

Before email took over long distance communications, I used to write and receive handwritten letters. While some were written on stationery, others were simply on lined notebook paper. A few were in greeting cards. Those from overseas often came on blue lightweight airmail paper stamped "par avion." I enjoyed finding any of these letters from friends or family in our mailbox. Now I often forget to look in the mailbox. There is rarely anything other than bills and solicitations from charities. The era of the letter to read and reread is gone, but there is a way to go back - reading collections of letters from your library.

It does not matter that letters in collections were not written to me - I enjoy them as if they were. I can easily slip into the role of friend and lose myself in a world of the writer. It is even better when the letters are read aloud by a professional reader. I say this as I am currently enjoying Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, read by Kate Fleming. I am sure Fleming is channeling the spirit of Elinore, who would have been a good friend to have.

In 1909, widow Elinore Pruitt left Denver with her two year old daughter to take a job as a housekeeper on a ranch near Burnt Folk, Wyoming, near the border with Utah. She planned to earn enough money to make her own land claim and escape the drudgery of doing laundry in a city. She succeeded beyond her dreams. She also found beautiful country full of deserts, forests, and mountains, which she described to her friend Mrs. Coney in Denver, who seems to have kept all of the letters. Of course, life on the frontier was not easy, but Elinore met many people who worked with her to make a good life. In her cheerful letters, she tells many stories about the cattlemen, shepherds, farmers, and other frontier folk.

Letters of a Woman Homesteader make wonderful reading and would serve as a great introduction to the world of letters.

Stewart, Elinore Pruitt. Letters of a Woman Homesteader. University of Nebraska Press, 1989. 281p. ISBN 0803251939.

In Audio, 2003. 4 compact discs. ISBN 1584724722.