author
James R. (James Rogers) McConnell
1887–1917
An American volunteer aviator who wrote vividly about flying for France in World War I, he turned firsthand experience into a brisk, personal war memoir. His life was short, but his book preserves the courage, restlessness, and idealism that drew young Americans into the conflict before the United States officially entered it.
1 Audiobook
Flying for France: With the American Escadrille at Verdun
by James R. (James Rogers) McConnell
About the author
Before he became known as a writer, he served in France during World War I and later flew with the Lafayette Escadrille, the celebrated group of American volunteer pilots fighting for France. Born in Chicago on March 14, 1887, and associated with Carthage, North Carolina, he was among the early Americans whose wartime service captured the public imagination.
He is best remembered for Flying for France, a firsthand account drawn from his own experiences in the war. The book has the immediacy of someone writing close to events, mixing danger, conviction, and the strange excitement of early aviation.
McConnell was killed in action in France on March 19, 1917, just days after his thirtieth birthday. That early death gave his writing an added poignancy: it stands not only as a memoir of wartime flying, but also as the record of a life cut short in the opening age of air combat.