Robert Leckie (author)

This article is about the military historian Robert Leckie. For information about the Canadian aviator, see Robert Leckie (aviator).

Robert Leckie
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Personal Information
Born:	December 18, 1920(1920-12-18)
Place of Birth:	{{{place of birth}}}
Died:	December 24, 2001 (aged 81)
Place of Death:	{{{place of death}}}
Nickname:	Lucky
Birth Name:	{{{birth name}}}
Other Information
Allegiance:	United States of America
Participation(s):	{{{participations}}}
Branch:	United States Marine Corps
Service Years:	{{{service years}}}
Rank:	File:USMC-E2.svg Private First Class
Service number :	{{{servicenumber}}}
Unit:	2nd Battalion 1st Marines
Commands:
Battles:	World War II Battle of Guadalcanal Battle of Cape Gloucester Battle of Peleliu
Awards:	Purple Heart Navy & MC Commendation Medal w/ Combat V
Relations:	{{{relations}}}
Other work:	{{{otherwork}}}

Robert Leckie (December 18, 1920 – December 24, 2001) was an American author of popular books on the military history of the United States. As a young man, he served in the Marine Corps with the 1st Marine Division during World War II. His experiences as a machine gunner and intelligence scout during the Battle of Guadalcanal and later campaigns are said to have greatly influenced his writing.

Biography

Leckie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 18, 1920 to an Irish Catholic family of eight children. He grew up in Rutherford, New Jersey. He began his professional writing career, before World War II, at age 16 as a sports writer for The Bergen Evening Record in Hackensack, New Jersey.

In 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Leckie enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in combat in the Pacific theater, as a scout and a machine gunner in the 1st Marine Division. He participated in every major 1st Marine Division campaign except Okinawa. Robert Leckie was wounded by blast concussion on Peleliu and evacuated, ending his combat tour.

Following World War II, Leckie worked as a reporter for the Associated Press, the Buffalo Courier-Express, the New York Journal American, the New York Daily News and The Star-Ledger. He married Vera Keller, a childhood neighbor, and they had three children: David, Geoff and Joan. According to Vera, in 1951 he was inspired to write a memoir after seeing South Pacific on Broadway and walking out halfway through. He said ‘I have to tell the story of how it really was. I have to let people know the war wasn’t a musical.’ His first and best-selling book, Helmet for My Pillow, a personal war memoir, was published in 1957. Leckie subsequently wrote more than 40 books on American war history, spanning from the French and Indian War (1754–1763) to Desert Storm (1991). Robert Leckie died in 2001 after fighting a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.

Leckie's war memoirs, Helmet for My Pillow, along with Eugene B. Sledge's book With the Old Breed, formed the basis for the 2010 HBO series The Pacific, the successor to Band of Brothers. He was portrayed in the miniseries by James Badge Dale.

Books

Military history

• Helmet for My Pillow. Random House. 1957. OCLC 2538164. 
• March to Glory. World Publishing Co.. 1960. OCLC 2851705.  On the Korean War.
• Conflict: The History of the Korean War, 1950-53. Da Capo Press. 1996 [1962 Putnam]. ISBN 0306807165. 
• Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines Against Japan. Perseus Publishing. 1997 [1962 Random House]. ISBN 9780306807855. OCLC 1140336. 
• Challenge for the Pacific; Guadalcanal, the turning point of the war. Doubleday. 1965. OCLC 1295146. 
• The Battle for Iwo Jima. New York: Random House and iBooks, Inc.. 1967 and 2005. ISBN 1590192419. OCLC 56015751. 
• Challenge for the Pacific: The Bloody Six-Month Battle of Guadalcanal. Doubleday & Company. 1968. Paperback ISBN 0-306-80911-7. 
• Great American battles. Random House. 1968.  "Summary: A review of America’s major wars, from the French and Indian War to the War in Korea, with emphasis on eleven important battles: Quebec, Trenton, New Orleans, Mexico City, Chancellorsville, Appomattox, Santiago, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Normandy, and Pusan-Inchon."
• The Wars of America. Harper Collins. 1998 [1968]. ISBN 0-7858-0914-7. 
• Delivered From Evil: The Saga of World War II. Harper & Row. 1987. (HarperPerennial Paperback ISBN 0-06-091535-8). ISBN 0060158123. 
• None Died in Vain: The Saga of the Civil War. HarperPerrenial. 1990. (Paperback ISBN 0-06-092116-1). ISBN 0-06-016280-5. 
• The General. I Books. April 2, 2002 [1991]. ISBN 0-7434-4461-2. 
• George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution. Harper Collins. 1992. (Paperback ISBN 0-06-092215-X). ISBN 0-06-016289-9. http://www.harpercollins.ca/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=006092215X&tc=cx. 
• From Sea to Shining Sea: From the War of 1812 to the Mexican-American War, the Saga of America's Expansion. HarperPerrenial. 1994. (Paperback ISBN 0-06-092254-0). ISBN 0-06-016802-1. 
• Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II. Viking Press. 1995. ISBN 0-670-84716-X. 
• The Wars of America: From 1600 to 1900. Harper Collins. 1998. (Paperback ISBN 0-06-092409-8). ISBN 0-06-012571-3. 
• A Few Acres of Snow: The Saga of the French and Indian Wars. Wiley & Son. 2000. (Paperback ISBN 0-471-39020-8). ISBN 0-471-24690-5. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471390208.html. 

Fiction

• Marines!. Bantam Books. 1960.  Fiction.

Other

• Lord, What a Family!. Random House. 1958.  Autobiography.

Medals and decorations

Template:Ribbon devices	Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat V
File:Purple Heart BAR.svg	Purple Heart
Template:Ribbon devices	US Navy Presidential Unit Citation with 4 stars
Template:Ribbon devices	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 5 service stars
File:World War II Victory Medal ribbon.svg	World War II Victory Medal

References

• "Leckie, Robert — Books and Biography". All Media Guide LLC. http://www.bestprices.com/cgi-bin/vlink/book_person?id=ZujRMsAE&p_id=182150&view=bio. Retrieved 2007-12-22. 
• Template:Cite interview
• Template:Cite interview
• "Simple search - author - "Leckie, Robert"". Library of Congress. http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search%5FArg=Leckie&Search%5FCode=NAME%5F&CNT=25&PID=21711&BROWSE=8&HC=45&SID=1. Retrieved 2007-12-22. 
• Martindale, Stone (July 26, 2007). "'Band of Brothers' producers cast 'The Pacific' series on HBO". Monsters & Critics. http://smallscreen.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1335209.php/Band_of_Brothers_producers_cast_The_Pacific_series_on_HBO. Retrieved 2007-12-22. 
• "Robert Leckie - The Pacific". http://www.awesomestories.com/assets/robert-leckie. Retrieved 2010-05-11. 
• DiIonno, Mark (February 21, 2010). "HBO series illuminates N.J. Marine's book on World War II experience". http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2010/02/hbo_series_shines_light_on_nj.html. Retrieved 2010-05-11. 

External links

• Robert Leckie as remembered by fellow H-Company Marine Sidney Phillips
• Historical interview footage of Robert Leckie

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