La plume et l'acier

While among the writers-combatants of the Great War, Charles Péguy, Guillaume Apollinaire, Alain-Fournier, Victor Segalen, or Ernest Psichari, have entered posterity, how many others have remained unjustly forgotten, unknown, even unknown. And yet a vast anthology was dedicated to them in 1924, and the marble of memory, fixed to the Pantheon since 1927, represents the very symbol of official recognition. 130 received the Legion of Honour, the Croix de guerre and the mention "Death for France". But since then, despite eminent work on the Great War, as far as they are concerned, oblivion has done its work. If many of them were born in Paris, all the other French departments can be proud to have seen the birth of one of their own. Many come from prestigious institutions, civil and military, and have worked in the fields of Letters, History, Science, Arts, Journalism... they left novels, poems and various contributions of great value. In order not to constitute a "library of oblivion", the author, through a meticulous work of bibliographic research, proposes to bring to light these 562 writers-combatants. Whether one is a man of letters, historian, scientist, jurist, academic, or simple reader, eager to expand the field of his knowledge, this book is an indispensable sum, intended to restore a little-known part of French literary history, from a memorial and cultural perspective. --From back cover (English translation).