Humphrey Cobb

[2] In 1916, after being expelled from high school at age 17, Cobb relocated to Montreal, Canada to enlist in the Canadian Army a year before the United States entered World War I.

He served for three years during the conflict, including duty on the front lines at the Battle of Amiens in France in 1918.

He worked in the stock trade, merchant marine, publishing, advertising, and the US Office of War Information writing overseas propaganda.

[4] The story is about three French soldiers who are court martialed and executed to save senior commanders from shame.

[5] The book was based on the Souain corporals affair, an actual event in WWI when the French Army shot four men for cowardice as an example to others.

Humphrey (right) with his recently widowed mother, Alice Littell Cobb, M.D.; his younger sister Alice; and little brother Arthur at the Casa Guida in Florence, Italy, December 24, 1908