A Legacy of Letters

Andrew Carroll created the all-volunteer Legacy Project three years ago to honor and remember

those who have served this country in wartime by seeking out and preserving their letters.

Now, with 50,000 letters in hand, Mr. Carroll has produced a new book, War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence From American Wars, published by Scribner and due in stores this week. The collection of 200 previously unpublished missives written by American men and women, some famous, covers nine conflicts from the Civil War to the Balkans.

Mr. Carroll, who also is executive director of the American Poetry & Literacy Project (The Chronicle, January 14, 1999), will funnel all of the book’s earnings, minus expenses, to a variety of nonprofit organizations, memorials, and institutions, particularly those working to honor and remember the men and women who have served the nation in wartime. He has already made several contributions from the book’s advance, including $100,000 to the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans.

Topics of the letters in the book include descriptions of combat, expressions of love, encounters with prominent military leaders, and news from the home front.

One goal of War Letters, says Mr. Carroll, is to honor the veterans who served their country and the families that were left behind to wait and worry.

“I also want the book to rip the glamour and romance about warfare that is often felt by people who were not involved, and especially to reveal to younger generations what the cost of war truly is,” says Mr. Carroll, who is 31.

And Mr. Carroll has another purpose: teaching Americans how to preserve old letters, regardless of the subject material.

Mr. Carroll plans eventually to donate the letters to museums and archives.

More information about the Legacy Project’s work, and how to preserve letters, is available at the organization’s Web site, http://www.warletters.com.