Wild Bill Guarnere.Community: Winters Biography - Wild Bill Guarnere.Community

OK. I've been threatening it for a while and here it is; the official Dick Winters biography site.

As mentined, although I have yet to receive the actual contract, it looks like the book will be published by New American Library, the nonfiction division of Penguin Books (Putnam). Don't place orders yet or ask me when it will be out. As I said, I have yet to see the contract (the sale, so far as I know, only went down Wednesday) so I guess I'll just have to be surprised.

My title for the book is "Biggest Brother: The Story of Major Richard D. Winters, the Man Behind the Band of Brothers" I used the term "Biggest Brother," not to commemorate the way Steven Spielberg introduced Winters at the Emmys in 2002, but because it was the title of the first news article I ever wrote about Winters after our first meeting in October 2001. In my lead paragraph I wrote, "If the men of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne were the Band of Brothers, then Major Ricard D. Winters is the 'Biggest Brother.'" My editor liked it so much he pulled it out of my story (God only knows why, but that's the way of editors, and used it for the headline. So, I guess you could say, Spielberg stole my line.

Dick and I began interviews last summer and do about one per month (I don't want to put too much pressure on the guy by hammering him too much for information. To help me Dick loaned me 4 large notebooks, labled "Normany" Holland" Bastogne" and "Germany." In these are reports, memoirs, casualty lists, duty rosters, maps and photographs. These are, in essence, the same things he gave to Ambrose and Eric Jenderson, the head writer for the mini series. Needless to say, if I just used these sources, what I'd have is a rewrite of BoB. So I have had to go WAY beyond those sources. That's why I have been pumping Dick for details of his life, especially the war years, where I am focusing on what he did, why he made the decisions he made, and what he thought about. Especially once he became battalion commander. While BoB stayed with Easy, I want to know how Dick handled Dog and Fox, plus HQ company. I also want to know more about his relationships with the men and the other officers, what did he think of them as men and as soldiers, their strengths and weaknesses. This is tough. Years have blurred some of his memories.

More importantly, I am looking at his early years. How he formed his strict moral code of hard work, honesty and respect. His roots are firmly planted in the pacifist Mennonite traditions of Lancaster County (his mother grew up Mennonite). His work ethic came from paying his own way through college, sacrificing a social life in order to get through. Also, how did he take the lessons he learned during the war and carry them through to his post war life. I especially focus on his post war relationship with Nixon, who was his total opposite in almost everything.

Basically the book breaks down like this: Chapter one is D-Day, from the time he jumps out of the plane until he goes to sleep in a foxhole in a hedgerow outside St. Marie du Mont (he was NOT in a town surrounded by motorized vehicles as in the film).

Chapter 2 looks at his early years, his birth, early education, a bit about his family tree (including Cpl. Timothy Winters who served in the Revolutionary War), his first jobs etc. up to his enlistment in the army as a private rather than wait to be drafted. It discusses his going into OCS in his desire to be an infantry officer (He actually once tried to talk an infantry buddy out of going into the airborne, calling it a "suicide outfit.") It ends with his ironic decision to enter the airborne himself and shipping out for Toccoa

Chapter 3 starts with Winters leaving the church in Aldbourne and drifting into the old cemetery to find some peace and quiet. There he met the Barnes family who lost their own son in the war and became Winters "family." Then we flash back to Toccoa and airborne training, follow Easy across the Atlantic to England and look at his problems with Sobel and the court martial (some of this parallels Ambrose but it was unavoidable since the documents can't be changed). It ends with the guys getting ready for the jump into France.

Chapter 4 picks up where chapter 1 left off with the guys moving on Vierville. It follows them on the assualt into Carentan and the German counterattack. It ends with them going first to Cherbourg, then to Utah Beach for ther trip back to England.

Chapter 5 is Winter reorganzing the company, promoting men, setting up a training shcedule, pointlessly urging the men to behave themselves when they go on leave into London and so forth. It ends with them getting ready for MArket Garden.

These 5 chapters are all written. They are written almost like a novel, with action and dialogue. Also helping to bring them to life is the fact that Dick has given me over 150 letters he wrote to DeEtta Almon from 1941 until Dec. 1945. He met DeEtta while at Camp Croft. She lived in Asheville NC and was his pen pal and confidant throughout the war. In these leters he told about his feelings of being in command, how he saw his job, its pluses and minuses and how it left him isolated from the men. He poured out a lot in these, and best of all, no one, not even Ambrose, has had access to these before. They only came to light after DeEtta read BoB and contacted Dick after 50 years. She had saved all his letters.

The book carries us up to the present to the Emmys and (let's hope) the Medal of Honor. It will include, I hope, an Introduction by Tom Hanks (I wrote Hanks a letter requesting that and am waiting to hear back). Hanks and Winters have kept in contact over the years and it was at Hanks' personal urging that Dick made the trip to the Emmys in 2002.

My goal is to tell the story of Winters life in a factual, yet entertaining way, so it is not a dry biography. I want it to come to life to give the reader a "you are there" feeling, so you feel you are right by his side all the way.

Finding a publisher was not as easy as I thoguht. I thought they'd scrammble to get Dick's story, but Simon & Schuster turned it down saying it was competitoin for BoB and that they felt there was not enough new material to warrant a separate book.

Hyperion turned it down, saying they weren't convinced there was a market.

HarperCollins said they MIGHT take it if Hanks did an Introduction. A few others bowed out, too, before NAL (Penguin) picked it up. Of the 12 my agent sent proposals and sample chapters to, 7 turned it down mostly for the reasons mentioned above and fearing BoB was too popular and no one would buy this book.

That's where I am at as of now. You are up to date. Thanks to all on this site for your support of thie project and encouraging words. Thanks to al of you, I know those publisher are all wet. People DO want to read the story of this man.

As the Colonel, would say, Outdamnstanding! It is simply great that we, and the world, are going to have holes filled in and questions answered. A market? Yeah, I'd say so.

Larry, congratulations. And thanks very much for keeping us filled in. Please let me know if I can do anything to help. Thanks, Doug

Doug. Thanks. I know there are a lot of "holes" to fill and my greatest fear is not filling all of them. Then again, maybe filling ALL the holes is too big a task. If I fill most, I will be happy.

That's great, Larry. Good luck and in hopes that the manuscript goes to print, sooner rather than later.

I can't wait for your book as well as Susan SmithFinn's on her Father, Burr Smith. Both great men and their stories should be told...

Have Manuscript - Will Print {the new cliche' for the Summer}...

Larry, Thanks for the summary of this path you're on. You know you have a ready market here, but I think there is a HUGE audience that will want to know more about this quiet strong man whose portrait in a book and a series was all too sparse.

Best of luck to you. BK

Larry,
I am excited to get my hands on a copy when it comes out!

Cheers!

Thomas

Alright! One step closer to a done deal. There is a large market just in the BoB online communities. Which there are many of. And they're just a tip of the iceberg of the people who have been touched by BoB and Major Winters.
I can't wait til those publishers who passed are spittin' nails at the missed opportunity.

Sue

That's the news I was waiting for for so long! Thanks for informing us, Larry. I can't wait to read it. Like I've said before a few months ago: I hereby pre-order a first edition of "Biggest Brother"!!!!

Keep up the good work and keep us informed as well!

wow larry! that is absolutely amazing!!! i definitely am going to get a copy of that when it comes out! good luck! :D

gold

Congratulations on finding an editor for your book Larry, and I'm happy to hear you're already this far in writing it. I will certainly buy it when it comes out, and I hope Major Winters will be still with us then so he'll be able to read the final version as well. How strange several editors turned the book down because of the popularity of BoB. I would expect the book to sell well BECAUSE of BoB. After all, without BoB only a few history specialists among us would know who Dick Winters is. To be honest, there would be little chance I would have bought it without having read BoB and seeing the series, unless it would be in the catalogue of my book club (which is how I got to buy BoB).

Happy writing Larry! :D

Wouter

This is a definite buy for me. Sounds like one of the "must haves" =)

:D Excellent. I look forward to finding your book at a bookstore real soon.

Michelle

Larry,

All I have to say is "I CAN'T WAIT TO READ IT!!!" Please let us know when it goes into production, so we can all be ready to get our copies. I can only imagine that this is a great accomplishment for you and I have a feeling that you will treasure this experience for the rest of your life!

Way to go!! You do yourself a great honor!!

Paige :D

Larry,
I have just one word to say: AWESOME.
I am very happy for you and I can't wait for the finished project. Congratulations again.
Chris Brown

Larry,

Thanks for the update. I've known you were writing a book, but I was wondering if it was just in the early stages, or what. I'm excited that it is so far along! The only problem is that reading your summary made me want the book RIGHT NOW! In this age of instant gratification, I'll have to learn some of that good old-fashioned patience. :D

The publishers are crazy... as Wouter said, it's because of BoB's popularity that people will snatch up this book. We humans always want to "know more!" And as Maj. Winters is one of my heroes, I won't wait around for paperback, either! :)

~Melodee