Barbara Wooddall Taylor - Miss You: The World War II Letters of Barbara Wooddall Taylor and Charles E. Taylor

Praise for Miss You

Their correspondence will touch the hearts of readers.Publishers Weekly

Unique grist for social historianswho, until now, lacked substantial two-way WW II correspondence.Kirkus Reviews

With the power to transform the lives of all who read them, these letters are highly recommended.Library Journal

Every once in a while a book appears and you wonder: Why hadnt anyone ever thought of this? Miss You is one of those books.Richmond News-Leader

Barbara, one of four or five million young women married to servicemen, serves as a model for these war brides, and this book tells a love story that is at once individual and representative of legions of couples. Roanoke Times

Warm, intimate, and lively letter writing, deft editing, intelligent and informed commentary, and the lucky appropriateness of a woman and a man who can be seen as typical World War II war bride and soldier combine well in Miss You.... They are lovely, open, innocent people.... This is an excellent book.Journal of American History

The editors... deserve plaudits for their careful and inclusive handling of this voluminous correspondence. Their informative chapter introductions place the Taylors within the larger context of wartime marriages, Americas consumer culture, and European battlefield experiences. Moreover, the editorial selections have left enough warts on the Taylors to make them more human. Journal of Southern History

Based on an extraordinary collection of letters between Barbara Wooddall Taylor and Charles E. Taylor, Miss You offers readers a unique opportunity to share the day-to-day lives of a young American couple separated during World War II.... The Taylor collection, which comprises over 4,000 typed pages of transcribed correspondence, is especially valuable, since it provides both sides of the story. Miss You gives readers valuable insights into the adjustments faced by separated couples.Southern Quarterly

Miss You contains letters so unaffected, so poignant, so humorous that it reminds us immediately of how much we have lost in this post-epistolary age. It also includes a lively narrative, at once tender and suspenseful. Magill Book Reviews

The publication of Miss You... is an extraordinary event, not only for its commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the second world war, but for its preservation of the wars distinctly female, American voice. Editors Litoff and Smith are to be highly praised for their meticulous editing work and for their prose passages linking together the letters.Belle Lettres

During World War II, the millions of letters American service men exchanged with their wives and sweethearts were a lifeline, a vital way of sustaining morale on both fronts. Intimate and poignant, Miss You offers a rich selection from the correspondence of one such couple, revealing their longings, affections, hopes, and fears and affording a privileged look at how ordinary people lived through the upheavals of this centurys greatest conflict.Oxford Review

In giving us the letters of Charles and Barbara Taylor, Litoff and Smith have given us something of ourselves. For these letters, written by a typical American couple, tell us who and what we were during this period in our history. Macon Telegraph and News

America in the 40s, when people rose above their individual concerns and pulled together to win the war, truly comes alive in Miss You. It is a document we should all read to remind us that we can be better than we are. New Orleans Times-Picayune

This collection provides a rare look into the lives of Americans on the homefront and overseas.Southern Historian

An accurate and appealing evocation of wartime America.Lee B. Kennett Jr., author of The G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II

Miss You is a touching, and often compelling, rendering of the love letters of a World War II couple. Cooperation between the authors of the letters and the editors has resulted in sensitive handling and meticulous editing. The book thus catches the reader up in romance at the same time that it reveals the tremendous difficulties of developing a relationship under the duress of a major world war. The editors are to be commended on their delicate and skillful handling of these important World War II letters.

Glenda Riley, Professor of History, University of Northern Iowa

The editors of this volume deserve our thanks. Barbara and Charles Taylor have most certainly earned our respect and admiration. Together, they have produced a volume that offers extraordinary insight into the daily experiences of Americans at war.

Georgia Historical Quarterly

MISS YOU

The World War II Letters
of Barbara Wooddall Taylor
and Charles E. Taylor

Judy Barrett Litoff David C. Smith
Barbara Wooddall Taylor Charles E. Taylor

Paperback edition, 2013
1990 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
Letters of Barbara Wooddall Taylor and Charles E. Taylor
1990 by Taylor Thomas Lawson
All rights reserved
Designed by Sandra Strother Hudson
Set in 10 on 14 Linotype Walbaum by
Tseng Information Systems Inc.

Printed digitally

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover
edition of this book as follows:
Taylor, Barbara Wooddall.
Miss you : the World War II letters of Barbara Wooddall Taylor and
Charles E. Taylor / [edited by] Judy Barrett Litoff, David C. Smith ;
Barbara Wooddall Taylor, Charles E. Taylor.
xv, 358 p., [24] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.
Includes index.
Bibliography: p. [315]351.
ISBN0-8203-1145-6 (alk. paper)
1. Taylor, Barbara WooddallCorrespondence. 2. Taylor, Charles E.
(Charles Eugene), 1919Correspondence. 3. World War, 19391945
Personal narratives, American. 4. World War, 19391945United States.
I. Taylor, Charles E. (Charles Eugene), 1919II. Litoff, Judy Barrett.
III. Smith, David C. (David Clayton), 1929IV. Title.
D811.5.T34 1990
940.548173dc20
89004874

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-4615-1
ISBN-10: 0-8203-4615-2
ISBN for digital edition: 978-0-8203-4650-2
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Francis Halls Lovers, 1941 and Alexa Byrne Fords The Army Wife
are reprinted with permission, from The Saturday Evening Post,
1941 The Curtis Publishing Co.
May Richstones Reunion at Grand Central 1943, Meredith Corporation.
All Rights Reserved. Reprinted from Ladies Home Journal magazine
with permission of the author.
The Sad Sack 1989 Sad Sack Inc.

FOR

Alyssa, Barbie, Babecakes, Bill, Caitlin, Charles, Charlotte, Cheri,
Clayton, Crystal, Dot, Hal, Jack, Jamie, Jim, Joshua, Katherine, Kim,
Lillian, Little Charlie, Mary Helen, Nadja, Sandra, Scott,
Sylvia, Taylor, and Will

In January 1982, when Barbara Wooddall Taylor, Charles E. Taylor, David C. Smith, and I first deliberated the possibility of collaboratively writing a book based on the voluminous World War II correspondence of Barbara and Charles, we had no idea that we had embarked on such a tumultuous project. We realized that the teaming up of two historians with two nonacademics was not the standard way that most books were written. The fact that we lived in Bangor, Maine; Providence, Rhode Island; and Gainesville, Florida, and that I was the niece of Barbara and Charles only further complicated the situation. But all four of us loved challenges, and we were determined to see this book project through to a successful completion.