author

William Benjamin West

A firsthand World War I memoir gives this author a quiet but memorable place in wartime literature. His best-known book recounts service with the YMCA alongside American troops in the Argonne, offering a personal view of the conflict rather than a grand military history.

1 Audiobook

The Fight for the Argonne: Personal Experiences of a 'Y' Man

The Fight for the Argonne: Personal Experiences of a 'Y' Man

by William Benjamin West

About the author

William Benjamin West is known for The Fight for the Argonne: Personal Experiences of a "Y" Man, published in 1919. Library of Congress records identify him as the book's author, and the work presents his experiences connected with YMCA service during World War I.

The book was published by The Abingdon Press in New York and Cincinnati shortly after the war. Its dedication to the men of the 37th Division and its focus on daily life near the front suggest a writer interested in the human side of war: morale, movement, hardship, and the ordinary people caught inside extraordinary events.

Little biographical information about West is easy to confirm from major reference sources, so his reputation today rests mainly on this surviving memoir. That scarcity gives his writing an added appeal: it feels like a direct voice from 1919, preserved for readers who want a more personal window into the First World War.