War as it really was

By Jan Gardner  |  May 24, 2009

George Weller, a Boston native and novelist, eventually became a fearless and prolific World War II correspondent. He filed eyewitness accounts from battlegrounds and beachheads and chronicled feats of heroism and humanity, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his account of submarine crewmen performing an appendectomy.

Weller was captured by the Germans when they invaded Crete in 1941, but he managed to escape. That same year he was one of the last reporters to get out of Singapore before the Japanese invasion. Four weeks after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Weller was the first outside journalist to enter the city. His reports were censored and weren't published in their original form until 2006 when his son, Anthony Weller, collected them in "First into Nagasaki."

Now Anthony Weller, who lives in Annisquam, has edited another collection, "Weller's War: A Legendary Foreign Correspondent's Saga of World War II on Five Continents" (Crown). George Weller's prose is compelling, whether he was reporting near the front lines or telling a gem of a story, as when he interviewed a lieutenant whose plane was shot down, dumping him in shark-infested waters. To make matters worse, the aviator's life jacket had a hole in it. "That's what thumbs are for," the lieutenant told Weller.

Did William Shakespeare write the works attributed to him? Some say no, with a few contending that Edward de Vere, the 17th earl of Oxford, deserves the credit. Academia has long derided the Oxfordian view, but it now has friends in high places.

US Supreme Court justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia have declared their support for de Vere. Noting that Shakespeare left no correspondence with his contemporaries and no books at his birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, Stevens told the Wall Street Journal last month, "I think the evidence that he was not the author is beyond a reasonable doubt."

On Saturday, the Shakespeare Fellowship will host a free daylong symposium in Watertown. Four Oxfordian scholars will make their case while exploring related topics, including the recently discovered oil painting that might be Shakespeare. Details at www.shakespearesymposium.org. RSVP by Wednesday.

Robert Nylen, who lived in Ashfield, was a writer, an ad salesman, a publisher, and an entrepreneur. He cofounded two award-winning media entities, the short-lived New England Monthly magazine and Beliefnet.com, now owned by Rupert Murdoch. In the last four years of his life, Nylen endured 10 surgeries and 12 broken bones, but he never lost his sense of humor. Days before he died last December, he finished his memoir, "Guts: Combat, Hell-raising, Cancer, Business Start-ups and Undying Love: One American Guy's Reckless, Lucky Life" (Random House), which is due out Tuesday.

"A Brain Wider Than the Sky: A Migraine Diary," by Andrew Levy (Simon & Schuster)

"Tornado Hunter: Getting Inside the Most Violent Storms on Earth," by Stefan Bechtel (National Geographic)

"Loon: A Marine Story," by Jack McLean (Presidio)

Pick of the week

Becky Dayton of the Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, Vt., recommends "The Soul of Medicine: Tales from the Bedside," by Sherwin Nuland (Kaplan): "Nuland writes about medicine for the masses without resorting to euphemism or shying away from scientific language. Anyone who enjoys a good medical drama or who dreamt of being a doctor is sure to soak this one up. My 13-year-old son put it on his Facebook page as his favorite book."

Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com.