Company K
Encyclopedia
Company K is a 1933 novel
by William March
, first serial
ised in parts in the New York
magazine Forum from 1930 to 1932, and published in its entirety by Smith and Haas
on 19 January 1933, in New York. The book's title was taken from the Marine
company
that March
served in during World War I
. It has been regarded as one of the most significant works of literature to come out of the American
World War I experience and the most reprinted of all March's work.
It has often been described as an anti-militarist and an anti-war
novel, but March maintained that the content was based on truth and should be viewed as an affirmation of life.
Graham Greene
places it among the most important of all war novels:
The journalist and writer Christopher Morley
had an almost identical response to Company K after reading an advance copy:
Company K has often been compared to Erich Maria Remarque
's classic anti-war
novel "All Quiet on the Western Front
" for its hopeless view of war. University of Alabama
professor and author Philip Beidler wrote in his introduction to the 1989 republication of the novel:
Years after the completion of Company K, Ernest Hemingway
published Men At War: The Best War Stories of All Time. In the introduction Hemingway notes that of all the stories published in the novel, the two he most desired to publish were omitted, Andre Malraux's Man's Fate
and William March's Nine Prisoners, one of the original serialized excerpts from Company K. Hemingway states that the anti-war aspects of the stories would not bode well, as the novel coincides with the beginnings of World War II
. He further states:
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by William March
William March
William March was an American author and a highly decorated US Marine. The author of six novels and four short-story collections, March was praised by critics and heralded as "the unrecognized genius of our time", without attaining popular appeal until after his death.March grew up in rural...
, first serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
ised in parts in the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
magazine Forum from 1930 to 1932, and published in its entirety by Smith and Haas
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
on 19 January 1933, in New York. The book's title was taken from the Marine
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
company
Company (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
that March
William March
William March was an American author and a highly decorated US Marine. The author of six novels and four short-story collections, March was praised by critics and heralded as "the unrecognized genius of our time", without attaining popular appeal until after his death.March grew up in rural...
served in during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. It has been regarded as one of the most significant works of literature to come out of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
World War I experience and the most reprinted of all March's work.
Plot summary
The novel comprises 113 vignettes about World War I marines in Company K. The novel is told from the viewpoint of 113 different marines, stretching from the beginning of training to the end of the war. These sketches create contrasting and horrific accounts of the daily life endured by the common marine. Many of the accounts stem from actual events witnessed and experienced by the author.It has often been described as an anti-militarist and an anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
novel, but March maintained that the content was based on truth and should be viewed as an affirmation of life.
Literary significance & criticism
Writer and literary critic for the SpectatorThe Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
places it among the most important of all war novels:
- "His book has the force of a mob-protest; an outcry from anonymous throats. The wheel turns and turns and it does not matter, one hardly notices that the captain of the company, killed on page 159, is alive again a hundred pages later. It does not matter that every stock situation of the war, suicide, the murder of an officer, the slaughter of prisoners, a vision of Christ, is apportioned to Company K, because the book is not written in any realistic convention. It is the only War-book I have read which has found a new form to fit the novelty of the protest. The prose is bare, lucid, without literary echoes, not an imitation but a development of eighteenth-century prose."
The journalist and writer Christopher Morley
Christopher Morley
Christopher Morley was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He also produced stage productions for a few years and gave college lectures.-Biography:Christopher Morley was born in Haverford, Pennsylvania...
had an almost identical response to Company K after reading an advance copy:
- "It's queer about this book--it suddenly made me wonder whether any other book about the War has been written in this country. It's a book of extra-ordinary courage--not the courage of hope but the quiet courage of despair. It will make patriots and romanticists angry--yet it is the kind of patriotism that is hardest and toughest. It ranks at once with the few great cries of protest. It is a selected, partial, bitter picture, but a picture we need. It will live. None of the acts of bravery for which the author was decorated during the War was as brave as this anthology of dismay."
Company K has often been compared to Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...
's classic anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
novel "All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.The...
" for its hopeless view of war. University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
professor and author Philip Beidler wrote in his introduction to the 1989 republication of the novel:
- "the act of writing Company K, in effect reliving his very painful memories, was itself an act of tremendous courage, equal to or greater than whatever it was that earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross and French Croix de Guerre".
Years after the completion of Company K, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
published Men At War: The Best War Stories of All Time. In the introduction Hemingway notes that of all the stories published in the novel, the two he most desired to publish were omitted, Andre Malraux's Man's Fate
Man's Fate
Man's Fate is a 1933 novel written by André Malraux about the failed communist insurrection in Shanghai in 1927, and the existential quandaries facing a diverse group of people associated with the revolution...
and William March's Nine Prisoners, one of the original serialized excerpts from Company K. Hemingway states that the anti-war aspects of the stories would not bode well, as the novel coincides with the beginnings of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He further states:
- "Since the military problem, which was by no means clearly presented in the story, will undoubtedly arise many times in this war, I thought the story should be omitted from this book for the duration of the war. After the war, if a new edition of this book is published, I should strongly advise that the story be included."
Publication information
- 1933, USA, Smith and HaasRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, Publication date 19 January 1933, hardback - 1933, UK, Victor Gollancz Limited, 20 March 1933, hardback
- 1952, USA, Lion Books, November 1952, hardback
- 1955, USA, Lion Books, December 1955, hardback
- 1957, USA, Sagamore Press Inc., 1957, paperback
- 1958, USA, Signet Books, May 1958, paperback
- 1959, UK, Transworld PublishersRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 4 February 1959, paperback - 1959, ITL, Longanesi & Company, 1959, paperback (ITL edition as Fuoco!)
- 1965, UK, Transworld PublishersRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 1965, paperback - 1968, UK, Transworld PublishersRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 1968, paperback - 1976, UK, Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd., Pub date 1976, hardback
- 1984, USA, Arbor HouseArbor HouseArbor House was an independent publishing house founded by Donald Fine in 1969. Specialising in hard cover publications, Arbor House published works by Hortense Calisher, Ken Follett, Cynthia Freeman, Elmore Leonard and Irwin Shaw before being acquired by the Hearst Corporation in 1979 to move into...
, Pub date 1984, paperback - 1989, USA, The University of Alabama Press, 1989, paperback
Adaptations
A film adaptation of the same name was made in 2004. It was written and directed by Robert Clem and stars Ari Filakos.External links
- Official film site, Company K
- Film trailer
- From the Review of the Robert Clem film adaptation of Company K by DVD Verdict
- Over the Top: Alabama and the Great War with a short article on Company K and a small bio of William March
- Publishing House Dulce et Decorum published a Dutch translation of Company K in 2008