vivid and accurate a writer may be, we must be wary of what he shows us as historic truth: a dangerous phrase. Samuel Hynes, in his thoughtful and illuminating book about The Soldiers’ Tale – the ordinary experience of war throughout the twentieth soldier’s century quotes from Graves is a useful Good-bye to All That. – witness to both sides of the accuracy argument the – book’s publication in 1929 caused an outcry, partly because it was outspoken and briskly offensive to a number of individuals and units but also because it was evidently inaccurate in a number of details. Writing in the Graves But It Still Goes On, ‘Postscript’, commented : It was practically impossible (as well as forbidden) to keep a diary in any active trench-sector, or to send letters home which would be of any great post-War documentary value; and the more efficient the soldier the less time, of course, he took from his job to write about it. Great latitude should therefore be allowed to a soldier who has since got his facts or dates mixed. I would even paradoxically say that the memoirs of a man who went through some of the worst experiences of trench warfare are not truthful if they do not contain a high proportion of falsities. High-explosive barrages will make a temporary liar or visionary of anyone; the old trench-mind is at work in all over-estimation of on horrors, mixing of casualties, ‘unnecessary’ dwelling dates and confusion between trench rumours and scenes actually witnessed. As Hynes goes on to say of the personal record: True but not truthful are not history […]. Personal narratives and they speak each with its own human voice, as can’t be; history does not, and they find their own shapes, which are not the shapes of history. They are neither better nor worse, neither more nor less valuable than history; they are simply different.
vivid and accurate a writer may be, we must be wary of what he shows us as historic truth: a dangerous phrase. Samuel Hynes, in his thoughtful and illuminating book The Soldiers’ Tale – about the ordinary soldier’s experience of war throughout the twentieth century – quotes from Good-bye to All That. Graves is a useful witness to both sides of the accuracy argument – the book’s publication in 1929 caused an outcry, partly because it was outspoken and briskly offensive to a number of individuals and units but also because it was evidently inaccurate in a number of details. Writing in the ‘Postscript’, But It Still Goes On, Graves commented : It was practically impossible (as well as forbidden) to keep a diary in any active trench-sector, or to send letters home which would be of any great post-War documentary value; and the more efficient the soldier the less time, of course, he took from his job to write about it. Great latitude should therefore be allowed to a soldier who has since got his facts or dates mixed. I would even paradoxically say that the memoirs of a man who went through some of the worst experiences of trench warfare are not truthful if they do not contain a high proportion of falsities. High-explosive barrages will make a temporary liar or visionary of anyone; the old trench-mind is at work in all over-estimation of casualties, ‘unnecessary’ dwelling on horrors, mixing of dates and confusion between trench rumours and scenes actually witnessed. As Hynes goes on to say of the personal record: True but not truthful […]. Personal narratives are not history and can’t be; they speak each with its own human voice, as history does not, and they find their own shapes, which are not the shapes of history. They are neither better nor worse, neither more nor less valuable than history; they are simply different.