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Prose & Poetry - Literary Ambulance Drivers
A        remarkable number of well known authors were ambulance drivers during World        War I.  Among them were Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, E.E.        Cummings, and Somerset Maugham. Robert Service, the writer of        Yukon        poetry including The Shooting of Dan McGrew, and Charles Nordhoff,        co-author of Mutiny On the Bounty, drove ambulances in the Great War.
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At least 23 well known        literary figures drove ambulances in the First World War.
If the list were        expanded to include those working in medically related fields during the        war, such names as Gertrude Stein, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and E.M.        Forster could be added.
The concentration of        famous writers as ambulance drivers is unique to the First World War.  W.H. Auden drove an ambulance in the Spanish Civil War and Walt Whitman sat        with the wounded of the American Civil War.  Novelist Vance Bourjaily        and playwright John Patrick drove ambulances in World War II for the        American Field Service.  But that seems to be the extent of famous        author's association with wartime medical matters in other wars.
This raises several        questions: Why did numerous future literary figures volunteer for ambulance        work in the First World War?  Why not in other wars? Did the ambulance        work influence their later lives and their writing?
The answers to these        questions tend to shed light on the times in which these writers lived and        the changes which occurred in American society during the period of the        First World War.
The Dismal Past
One good        reason writers had not joined ambulance services in previous wars was a lack        of such ambulance services to join.
Although military        field hospitals and ambulance waggons were introduced by Queen Isabella's        forces in the 1480's, the first organized field transport of wounded during        battle in vehicles designed for that purpose did not take place until 1792,        when Dominique-Jean Larrey, chief surgeon of the Grand Armee of France,        created the first ambulance wagons specifically designed as ambulances.  They had removable litters and places for storing bandaging supplies and        refreshments.  Larrey also designed a pack animal litter for wounded.  His basic designs were used by armies worldwide until the advent of        motorized ambulances about 100 years later.
There        were wagons used as ambulances in the American Civil War.  At first        their reputation was bad.  At Bull Run the ambulances were "driven by        civilian drunkards and thieves who ran when they heard the guns," one author        wrote.  As the war progressed, Jonathan Letterman, medical director of        the Army of the Potomac, assigned specific ambulance corps to each army corps and ambulance        service was improved.  The Japanese specifically used Letterman's        ambulance plan in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) while the Russians did        not have an organized ambulance service.
Armies in general in        the mid-nineteenth century were not noted for quality medical care.  In        1869, Deputy Inspector-General T. Longmore, honorary surgeon to Queen        Victoria, wrote in his A Treatise on the Transport of Sick and Wounded        Troops that the ambulance systems were the least satisfactory part of        the medical department, which itself was the least satisfactory part of the        military.
A difficulty with        ambulances was that a vehicle pulled by an animal was necessarily slow and,        with the rough terrain usually found in battle areas, the patient was likely        to die from the trip itself.  It was more pathetic than glamorous.  It was also under military discipline, a status many with artistic        temperaments would find disagreeable.
A volunteer ambulance        service, the Anglo-American Ambulance, was organized by American        gynaecologist Marion Sims for service in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71).
A civilian volunteer        ambulance corp. took six ox drawn ambulances to Cuba in 1898 to serve in The        Spanish-American War.  It arrived too late for action.  The First        New York Ambulance Society raised the money.  American Red Cross        founder Clara Barton went to        Cuba        to survey the needs and her nephew, Stephen Barton, shipped the ambulances.
As the nineteenth        century came to an end, the image of the ambulance was about to undergo a        radical change produced by the development of the automobile.  In 1899        the first automobile ambulance in the world was built for a Chicago        hospital.  Soon speed was part of the image of the ambulance.
The Gentlemen Volunteers of World War I
This speed        and the novelty of the ambulance helped make driving the vehicle acceptable        to young members of the better educated class in the United States.  This helps account for the nature of the organizations which recruited the        volunteers and the type of volunteers they sought: gentlemen from the better        schools.
The automobile was so        new that many of the young men had to learn to drive before they could        serve.  "I'm going to France with the Norton-Harjes as soon as I can        take a course in running a machine," wrote John Dos Passos in a personal        letter.
There        were three predominant WWI volunteer ambulance groups: the American Field        Service (AFS), Norton-Harjes, and the American Red Cross operation in Italy. 
When the United States entered the war, AFS and Norton-Harjes were both        merged into the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps.  Many of the future writers        left the war rather than join the army where they would have become        privates.  In the volunteer groups they had been considered "gentlemen        drivers" and the equivalent of officers.  "Richard Norton is hanging on        by his eye teeth," wrote E.E. Cummings to his mother on        August 2, 1917, "God help us from being taken over by the American        Army!!!!!!"
The only famous writer        to serve only in the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps was Dashiell Hammett, who        perhaps should not be included in the ambulance driver list.  He is the        only one on the list who did not volunteer for ambulance duty and the only        one not to see service in Europe with the accompanying dangers.  Hammett was assigned to an ambulance company after entering the U.S. Army,        but he came down with tuberculosis and spent the war as a patient in a        stateside hospital.
The American Field        Service started as the ambulance arm of the American Hospital in Paris.  Its driving force was A. Piatt Andrew, a former        U.S.        Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and professor of economics at Harvard        University.  A mid-1915 agreement resulted in the ambulances being        attached to French line divisions.
The AFS got an        eighteenth century mansion of five acres as headquarters and cut its ties        with the American Hospital.  AFS had recruited its drivers directly        from colleges and universities around the United States.  Individual        ambulance units were made up exclusively of drivers from particular        universities.  Thus there were Harvard units, Yale units, etc.
The United States        declared war on April 6, 1917 and AFS was merged into the U.S. Army on        August 30, 1917.  While serving as drivers with AFS 151 men had been        killed, including 21 Harvard students.  There were a total of about        2,500 AFS drivers in WWI.  The AFS continued as a legal entity.  It offered scholarships to France between the wars, provided ambulance        service in France and North Africa in WWII, and since 1945 has operated a        student exchange program.
The Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps was created through the merger of the        Harjes Formation of the American Red Cross and the American Volunteer Motor        Ambulance Corps organized in 1914 by Richard Norton, son of Harvard's        Charles Eliot Norton.  Harjes was A. Herman Harjes, a French banker.  Norton-Harjes reported no fatalities among its drivers.
The American Red Cross rushed 135 Americans to Italy in December 1917 to        drive ambulances serving with the Italian Army.
Why Join?
Many young        men had a strong desire to be in the middle of the action but were not        physically fit for acceptance in an army.  Hemingway, who had defective        vision in his left eye, expressed these viewpoints when, prior to joining,        he wrote to his sister, Marcelline, "But I'll make it to Europe some way in        spite of this optic.  I can't let a show like this go on without        getting into it."
Dos Passos was so        myopic he couldn't see the top letter on an eye chart.  War was more        dangerous than many thought.  After getting wounded, a soldier might be        sped off to the hospital by a half blind ambulance driver.
Somerset Maugham at 40        and 5'6" was both too old and too short to enlist at the beginning of the        war.  So he joined a British Red Cross ambulance unit attached to the        French Army.  One of his co-drivers, Desmond MacCarthy, later became        literary critic for The Sunday Times.
Some        people failed to appreciate that these men entered the war before their        country did, risked death, and, in some cases, could not have gotten in the        military anyway.
The ambulance drivers were criticized for not being in fighting units.  This disdain for non-combatants affected the viewpoints of some volunteers.  Robert Service wrote that "I did not wear my Red Cross arm band, for I was        ashamed I was not a combatant.  Though I did not want to kill I was        willing to take a chance of being killed.  If I only could get some        gore on my uniform I might feel better."
There were others who        did not want to kill.  Dos Passos was one of them.  But Dos Passos        in particular seemed not to mind chancing being killed.  He took many        chances far beyond the inherent risks of ambulance driving, which many        considered risky enough.
Adventure, patriotism,        doing what's right, signing up because others in the same school class signed up, and wanting to participate in what was of significance to the        world at the time were all reasons for joining.  So was escape.  Dos Passos"s father had just died, preceded by his mother.  He needed        to get away.  Harry Crosby considered his life at school and home        unhappy and wanted to escape "the horrors of        Boston        and particularly of Boston virgins."
The reasons many of        these same men returned to participate in Parisian literary circles in the        1920's were completely different from their reasons for entering the        ambulance services.  They returned to France after the war because it        was cheaper to live there, France did not have prohibition, a wilder life        could be led, Paris        had the aura as the place to be for anyone artistic, there was less        censorship, and France had become familiar to them from their time as        ambulance drivers.  Also the wild life in Paris could be an attempt to        avoid facing what had been encountered in war.
Some expressed        exuberance for the ambulance driving work.  However, all the exuberance        expressed may just have been to hide from the horrors being witnessed.  Three of the American ambulance driver-authors who actually carried dead and        dying committed suicide later in life: Hemingway, Crosby, and Seabrook.  Although none of the suicides can be directly connected to the war, the        proportion of suicides to the size of the group is very high and the war had        an obviously strong influence on the lives of the men who later killed        themselves.
Crosby's biographer        Geoffrey Wolff wrote, "Mutilation, vermin, cowardice, relentlessness,        insanity, hysteria, and cruelty played in the theatre of his imagination        from the time of Verdun till the end of his life, and they were prompted by        war."
Cowley believed        Crosby's suicide related specifically to        November 22, 1917,        when a shell seriously wounded a man standing beside        Crosbyand then, as he drove some of the wounded from the area, shells        continued to burst all around his ambulance.  Crosby himself said it        was that night that changed him from a boy into a man.
Could that be true not        only regarding Crosbybut also in regard to Seabrook and to Hemingway?  Hemingway was        seriously wounded by a shell which killed men near him.
War in        Writings
The First        World War played a major role in the writings of the men who served in that        war's volunteer ambulance corps.  War can provide the basic impetus        that gets a person started toward becoming a writer.
But most soldiers        don't have the leisure to contemplate the fundamental elements war can bring        a person face to face with.  But being an ambulance driver by its very        nature made a person feel more like a spectator than a participant.
There were times to        think while ambulance driving or while waiting to drive.  Thoughts lead        naturally to the desire to put those thoughts on paper.
One thing Maugham did        while idling near        Dunkirk        was correct the proofs of his novel Of Human Bondage.
Principal characters        in Dos Passos' 1919 follow his own history of serving first with        Norton-Harjes in        France        then with The American Red Cross in        Italy.  The 42nd Parallel had ended with its main character headed to France        to drive an ambulance.  His first novel, One Man's Initiation, 1917,        was about the war.
The primary character        in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms like Hemingway himself is wounded        while serving as an ambulance driver in Italy and falls in love with his        nurse in the hospital.  Both Dos Passos and Hemingway returned later in        their writing to WWI.
Robert Service's Rhymes of a Red Cross Man were derived from his own experience.  The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings was about his time in a French        prison.
Charles Nordhoff began        his writing career when his accounts of his ambulance service were published        in The Atlantic Monthly.  His co-author of Mutiny on the        Bounty, Charles Norman Hall, served in the Lafayette Escadrille and also        wrote accounts of the war for The Atlantic Monthly. 
Gertrude Stein wrote        about her WWI work in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.
Dorothea Canfield        Fisher wrote simple stories in Braille for blinded French soldiers.  She also wrote Home Fires and The Day of Glory about the war.
John Masefield wrote The Old Front Line and The Battle of the Somme.
The        war helped produce an international group of wanderers.  The tradition        had been broken of settling down to work and family after finishing formal        education.
The former ambulance drivers could not seem to keep still.  Dos Passos bounced all over the place.  Hemingway kept going back to        France, Italy, and Spain.  Seabrook was perhaps the most exotic        traveller, living with North African Bedouins, with devil worshipers in        Kurdistan, and with voodoo believers in Haiti.  Sidney Howard served in        ambulance corps both in France and in the Balkans.  Later he translated        works from Spanish, French, German, and Hungarian.
When the writers did go home, it was with thoughts of travel, excitement, and war in their minds,        pens, and Smith-Coronas.  And they found they could not stay home. 
"We literary men have        been very evil, writing about war," wrote Masefield in a letter to his wife        early in the war, "To fight is bad enough, but it has its manly side, but to        let the mind dwell on it and peck its carrion and write of it is a devilish,        unmanly thing, and that's what we've been doing, ever since we had leisure,        circa 1850."
The literary        generation of the war became the first true generation of American writers.  But it was a generation adrift; first into the alcoholism and sexual freedom        of the 1920's and then into the radicalism of the 1930's.
Instead of a derivative European voice or a regional voice, America had        grown to the maturity of having a national literature.  Ambulance        service in WWI had helped to mould the outlook of that literary generation.  They in turn helped mould the outlook of future American generations.
Writers Who Were        Ambulance Drivers in WWI
Ernest          Hemingway