Operation Homecoming Returns to Central

St. Louis, MO . . . The St. Louis Public Library is proud to present a very special evening with Andrew Carroll, editor of the landmark book, Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families, and special guest Jeff Shaara. The event takes place at Central Library, 1301 Olive Street, on Thursday, September 27 at 7 p.m. The program is FREE and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Left Bank Books.

Operation Homecoming is the result of a major initiative launched by the National Endowment for the Arts to inspire U.S. service members and their families to write down and share their personal wartime experiences. Almost 100 uncensored eyewitness accounts, private journals, short stories, letters, e-mails, poems, and other personal writings are featured in the book.

In 1998, Andrew Carroll founded the Legacy Project, a national all-volunteer effort to honor and remember those who have served this nation in wartime by seeking out and saving their letters. From this project came Carroll’s bestseller War Letters, the compelling correspondence of American military men and women, as well as the PBS documentary of the same name. The book features 200 previously unpublished letters from the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, and Bosnia.

Jeff Shaara is the multiple New York Times bestselling author of books such as Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure, Gone for Soldiers, Rise to Rebellion, Civil War Battlefields, and To the Last Man (which received praise from individuals such as General Tommy Franks, Steve Forbes, and General Wesley Clark). In addition, it garnered Shaara his second “William Young Boyd” Award for Excellence in Military Fiction from the American Library Association.

For more information, call 314-206-6779.

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9/17/2007