My academic research is 80% complete for The Remains of the Corps: Volume II: Belleau Wood and Beyond with “just-in-time” research of 20% remaining.
Additional research will include:
- a visit to France and the preserved battlefield of Belleau Wood where the earth is the only surviving witness to the history that came to pass in June of 1918. I will walk the ground where ten thousand Marines fought and more than a thousand died.
- several trips to the Library of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia where I was twice stationed. The Library of Marine Corps includes a Research Library as well as the Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections.
MY PROCESS:
- Read each research book
- highlight relevant portions
- read highlighted material into a Word document (using Dragon Naturally Speaking or similar speech-to-text software)
- print document
- manually code each bit of material selected, assigning it to its likely location in the novel
- enter the manually assigned code into the Word document
- complete a computerized sort the document by likely location in the novel
- print the document and place it in the appropriate spiral binder (one for each chapter in the novel)
- The result is an inventory of research material for each section.
RESEARCH LIBRARY – Personal Collection
The following books are in my personal collection and have been or will be used in the writing of The Remains of the Corps:
Literary Research Books
- 1000 Most Important Words (Schur)
- 1001 Fun and Fabulous Forgotten Words and Phrases (Runyan)
- American Talk: The Words and Ways of American Dialects (Hendrickson)
- Artful Nuance, The: A Refined Guide to Imperfectly Understood Words in the English Language (Evans)
- Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Penned by the Bard (Malless)
- Dictionary of Clichés, The (Rogers)
- Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (Morris)
- Dictionary of Word Origins (Almond)
- Dictionary of Word Origins (Shipley)
- Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, The (Hendrickson)
- In a Pig’s Eye: The Dictionary of Country Jawing (Bertram)
- Slang and Its Analogues (Farmer)
- Thingamajigs & Wattchamacallits (Evans)
- Words About Words (Grambs)
USMC Research Books - WWI
- And A Few Marines (Thomason)
- At Belleau wood (Asprey)
- At Belleau Wood With rifle and Sketch Pad: Memoir of a United States Marine in World War I (Lynn)
- Battle of Belleau Wood: The Marines Stand Fast (Suskind)
- Chateau Thierry and Belleau Wood 1918: America’s Baptism of Fire on the Marne(Bonk)
- Co. K(March)
- Daddy Pat of the Marines (Evans)
- Dear Folks At Home: The Glorious Story of the United States Marines in France (Cowing)
- Devil Dogs at Belleau Wood: U.S. Marines in World War I, The (Camp)
- Devil Dogs Chronicle: Voices of the 4thMarine Brigade in World War I (Clark)
- Echoes From Over There: By the Men of the Army and Marine Corps Who Fought in France (Hamilton)
- Fix Bayonets(Thomason)
- Gas Warfare at Belleau Wood, June 1918 (Cochrane)
- God Have Mercy On Us (Scanlon)
- His Time In Hell: A Texas Marine in France: The World War I Memoir of Warren R. Jackson (Clark)
- History of the Third Battalion, Sixth Regiment, U.S. Marines: Compiled from Official Records
- History of the United States Marines (Metcalf)
- Leathernecks: Our Marines in Fact and Picture (Boswell)
- Miracle at Belleau Wood: The Birth of the Modern U.S. Marine Corps (Axelrod)
- Over There With Marines at Chateau-Thierry (Ralphson)
- Over There: A Marine in the Great War (Brannen)
- Second Division American Expeditionary Force in France, 1917 – 1919
- Suddenly We Didn’t Want To Die: Memoir of a World War I Marine (Mackin)
- Tale of a Devil Dog, The(Carter)
- Through the Wheat: A Novel of the World War I Marines (Boyd)
- To the Limit of Endurance: A Battalion of Marines in the Great War (Owen)
- U.S. Marine Corps in World War I, 1917-1918, Men-At-Arms Series (Henry)
- With the Help of God and a Few Marines: The Battles of Chateau Thierry and Belleau Wood (Catlin)
- World War I Memoirs of Don Paradis, Gunnery Sergeant, USMC, The (Paradis)
General Research Books – WWI
- “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Remarque)
- America in France (Palmer)
- American Armies and Battlefields in Europe (American Battle Monuments Commission)
- Doughboys, The (Stallings)
- Faces of World War I: The Great War in Words and Pictures (Arthur)
- Great War and Modern Memory, The (Fussell)
- History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion (McCollum)
- History of . . . Transports and Cruisers . . . in the World War (Gleaves)
- Machine Guns of World War I (Bruce)
- Memoirs of the Harvard Dead in the War Against Germany, Volume I (Howe)
- Navy Medics with the Marines, 1917 – 1918
- Our Navy in the War (Perry)
- Over There: The Story of America’s First Great Overseas Crusade (Freidel)
- Storm of Steel (Junger)
- Story of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, 1917 – 1919, The: An Historical Glossary (Lighter)
- Stretchers: The Story of a Hospital Unit on the Western Front (Pottle)
- Tanks and Weapons of World War I (Fitzsimons)
- The Flame that was France (Malherbe)
USMC Research Books – General
- Illustrated Directory of the United States Marine Corps (Hearn)
- Marines: An Illustrated History(Hearn)
- Marines and Others (Thomason)
- Semper Fi: The Definitive Illustrated History of the U.S. Marines (Chenoweth)
- U.S. Marine Corps Score Book: A Rifleman’s Instructor for the U.S. Magazine Rifle, Caliber 30, Model 1903
- USMC Soldiers of the Sea (1918 pamphlet)
USMC Bibliographies
- An Annotated Bibliography of the United States Marine Corps in the First World War(Hilliard)
- An Annotated Bibliography of U.S. Marine Corps History (Coletta)
- Creating a Legend: The Descriptive Catalog of Writing About the U.S. Marine Corps (Moran)
General Research Books – Miscellaneous
- Beloved Captain: The Honor of the Brigade (Hankey)
- Book of Letters – 1922(Crowther)
- Boston Globe: Historic Front Pages: 1872 – 1997
- Century, The (Jennings)
- Esar’s Comic Dictionary of Wit and Humor (Esar)
- Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things (Panati)
- Fabulous Century, The: 1920 – 1930 (Time-Life)
- Fabulous Century, The: 1930 – 1940 (Time-Life)
- Harvard A to Z(Bethell)
- Infantry Drill Regulations: United States Army – 1911
- Mind Over Water: Lessons on Life from the Art of Rowing (Lambert)
- Our Harvard: Reflections on College Life by Twenty-Two Distinguished Graduates
- Pocket Knives(Levine)
- Private Benny Bungle: Serviceman's Laugh Encyclopedia - The Greatest Army Joke Book (Miller)
- Quantico: Semper Progredi, Always Forward (Gernand)
- Rats, Lice, and History (Zinsser)
- Shavetails and Bell Sharps: The History of the U.S. Army Mule (Essin)
- Why Marines Fight (Brady)
- Words on War: Military Quotations from Ancient Times to Present (Shafritz)
- Writer’s Quotation Book, The(Charlton)
General Research Books – Music
- CD: Great War, The: 50 Original Historical Recordings from the First World War Years 1914 – 1918(various artists)
- CD: Songs of World War I(various artists)
- Civil War Songbook, The(Crawford)
- College Songs - 1890(Waite)
- Patriotic and Folk-Lore Songs(Pease)
- Songs My Mother Never Taught Me, The(Niles)
- Songs the Soldiers and Sailors Sing(Feist)
- Sound Off! Soldier Songs from Yankee Doodle to Parley Voo (Dolph)
- World War I Songs: A History and Dictionary of Popular American Patriotic Tunes, With Over 300 Complete Lyrics (Vogel)
General Research Books – Military Slang
- A Dictionary of Soldier Talk (Etting)
- Salty Language: An Unabridged Dictionary of Marine Corps Slang, Terminology, and Jargon (Bufalo)
- War Slang: American Fighting Words and Phrases from the Civil War to the Gulf War(Dickson)
General Research Books – French Language
- First Year French(O’Brien)
- French - English, English – French Dictionary (Larousse)
- French for Beginners(Duff)
- French in No Time(Adrienne)
- French Made Simple(Jackson)
- Learn to Speak French Workbook(Leppig)
General Research Books – Commonplace Books
- A Commonplace Book Primer(Katzev)
- E. M. Forster Commonplace Book(Gardner)
- John Milton and His Commonplace Book(Mohl)
General Research – Film
- “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Mann)
- “What Price Glory” (Ford)
- “WWI: The Great War” (History Channel Classics)
RESEARCH LIBRARY – Personal Collection: Unused Inventory of Literary Research Books
- 20,000 Quips & Quotes (Esar)
- 2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings and Expressions (Funk)
- 2548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (Byrne)
- A Dictionary of American – English Usage (Nicholson)
- A Dictionary of American Idioms (Makkai)
- America’s Popular Proverbs and Sayings (Titelman)
- Black Sheep and Lame Ducks: The Origins of Even More Phrases We Use Every Day (Jack)
- Book of Insults, The (McPhee)
- Comic Encyclopedia, The (Esar)
- Complete Idiot’s Guide to Weird Word Origins (McFedries)
- Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, The (Baldick)
- Contradictionary (Spiegl)
- Dictionary of American Slang (Wentworth)
- Dictionary of Difficult Words (Cassidy)
- Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers)
- Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions (Shaw)
- Gilded Tongue, The (Evans)
- Grand Panjandrum and 1999 Other Rare, Useful and Delightful Words and Expressions, The (Hook)
- Heavens to Betsy and Other Curious Sayings (Funk)
- Heavy Words Lightly Thrown (Roberts)
- Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate, The (Ehrlich)
- Humorous English (Esar)
- Lifetime Reading Plan (Fadiman)
- Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past (Flexner)
- New American Dictionary of Difficult Words, The (Cassidy)
- Partridge’s Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Beale)
- Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang(Lighter)
- Rhyming Dictionary (Redfield)
- Smart Words (Harrison)
- Viking Book of Aphorisms, The (Auden)
“Jigsaw Puzzle” – Metaphor & Method
My voluminous research has left me with many thousands of pieces of information, large and small, from individual words . . . to phases . . . to sentences . . . to photographs – all puzzle pieces, if you will, and I am an accomplished jigsaw puzzler, having put together at least sixty sizeable puzzles over the years (all preserved with paste and tape). I have found my jigsawing experience, which predated my writing of The Remains of the Corps, to be extremely valuable in assembling the pieces of my novel.