Stuart Walcott

author

Stuart Walcott

1896–1917

A young American aviator whose wartime letters capture the rush, danger, and idealism of flight in World War I. His writing is vivid and personal, turning a brief life into a memorable first-hand record of courage in the air.

1 Audiobook

Above the French Lines Letters of Stuart Walcott, American Aviator: July 4, 1917, to December 8, 1917

Above the French Lines Letters of Stuart Walcott, American Aviator: July 4, 1917, to December 8, 1917

by Stuart Walcott

About the author

Stuart Walcott was an American aviator born on June 2, 1896. In 1917, while still part of Princeton's Class of 1917, he left the university to join the U.S. Signal Corps and soon went to France for flight training.

His letters from July to December 1917 were collected after his death in Above the French Lines, a book that gives a direct, youthful view of learning to fly and serving near the front during World War I. Another short memorial volume, The Life Story of an American Airman in France, preserved extracts from his correspondence and remembered the impression he made on others.

Walcott was reported missing after aerial combat on December 12, 1917, near Saint-Souplet, and he was killed at just 21 years old. Because his published letters were gathered so soon after his death, they still feel immediate: full of energy, curiosity, and the sense of a talented young life cut short.