Back of the Front in France

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Amy Owen Bradley's wartime letters offer an immediate, personal portrait of France under siege, from the busy offices of the American Fund for French Wounded in Paris to hospitals, canteens, and bomb-shaken towns. As a young American motor driver, she files requests, packs comfort bags, and wrestles with her temperamental Ford "Lizzie," all while recording the humor, exhaustion, and camaraderie that keep daily service going. Her travels carry her through Christmas celebrations with Allied soldiers, snowy Brittany supply work, and dangerous night journeys past ruined roads and air raids, where courage and absurdity often meet. Across the book, Bradley reveals the hidden violence beneath peaceful landscapes: submarines, torpedoes, mines, and bombing raids shadow fishermen, families, and soldiers alike. Yet she also finds dignity in the wounded, gratitude in hospital wards, and fellowship in figures such as the kindly Préfet, the devoted Commandant, the resourceful Monsieur Martin, and the disciplined Chasseurs and Zouaves. Through vivid observation and warm humor, these letters trace resilience, compassion, and the sustaining power of small acts of kindness in wartime.