The History of Rome Hanks" remains in the recollections of those of us who read it when it was first published in 1944 as one of the truly great American novels. Sinclair Lewis called it "one of the richest and most pungent novels of this decade", and The New Republic described it as "...a view of the Civil War worth putting beside Brady's photographs, Grant's "Memoirs", "The Red Badge of Courage" and "Miss Ravenels's Conversion".It was one of 1944's best sellers.

The central figure of the novel is a young man trying to sort out his memories of the tales of the Civil War told him by his grandfather and his father, and to imagine what their lives must have been like,and what the War had done to them. The tale ranges from past to present, from Gettysburg and Savage's Station and Shiloh to present-day Kansas. Pennell employs a fragmented, interior-monologue narrative style, giving his reader a view of the War as his characters must have experienced it, and he does it with dazzling control. It as, and remains, a genuinely great war novel.

Four years later Pennell published his second novel, "The History of Nora Beckham: A Museum of Home Life",(Charles Scribner's Sons; NY, 1948), which is an extension of the lives of his people into their postwar lives. And after that this brilliant novelist disappears from the literary radar screen-- absolutely disappears. In more than fifty-five years of searching I have found only the occasional mention of "Rome Hanks" and Joseph Stanley Pennell.

Perhaps one reason for such undeserved obscurity is this: the book was published in 1944, when paper was rationed, press runs were limited, and the writer's most likely readership was still overseas with another war on their minds and no access to a book which would have made perfect sense to them. Even so, the literary historians have failed readers grievously by their silence since.

My father bought this book just before shipping out to Europe during the war and it remained his favorite novel until his death several years ago. It contains reminiscinces of the War Between the States which are as authentic feeling as any I've read. I believe the author was a military man who must have used the memories of his own battlefield experiences in writing the book. The segment on Pickett's Charge has stuck in my mind since I was in the ninth grade. This is the book by which I measure other combat novels and memoirs. It is also a very thought provoking book- more so than most other novels of its type. I have searched for other books by Pennell but to my regret have found none. Highly recommended.

This is the classic example of the author who has one great book within him. He apparently had thought about writing a fictionalized recollection of an ancestor's Civil War experiences. The thought took decades to germinate. The novel, when it appeared after World War II, was enormously popular, and was never followed by a second book. This book is extremely moving, not only for its combat memories but for the day to day observations of life and nature. There are passages which taken alone would justify the read. The book was out of print for many years, and fortunately is available again. You could call it a longer Red Badge of Courage, only it is much broader ranging and more laden with insights. It is not preachy in the slightest. You will find it a memorable book for all ages and both sexes.