author
Arthur Guy Empey
1883–1963
A World War I veteran turned his battlefield experience into one of the era’s best-known war memoirs, then carried that larger-than-life energy into film and popular culture. His work offers a vivid glimpse of how the First World War was remembered and retold for mass audiences.
2 Audiobooks
"Over the Top," by an American Soldier Who Went Together with Tommy's Dictionary of the Trenches
by Arthur Guy Empey
Tales from a Dugout
by Arthur Guy Empey
About the author
Born in Ogden, Utah, in 1883, Arthur Guy Empey became known as a soldier, writer, actor, and filmmaker. He served with the British Army during World War I, and after returning home he wrote Over the Top, an autobiographical war book that became a major success.
Empey’s writing was shaped by firsthand experience, which helped give his work an immediacy that readers responded to. He also wrote patriotic song lyrics and moved into silent film, where he acted, wrote, produced, and directed.
That mix of military experience and showmanship made him a distinctive public figure of his time. Today he is remembered above all for Over the Top and for the way he turned personal wartime experience into widely read and widely seen storytelling.