Around the Press in 80 Books: Parachute Infantry

In celebration of LSUP’s 80th anniversary the staff selected 80 of our most memorable titles. Adding to our “Around the Press in 80 Books” blog series, Assistant to the Director Erica Bossier writes about Parachute Infantry.

Parachute Infantry by David Kenyon Webster is the memoir of his experiences as a paratrooper: jumping into Normandy the night before D-Day with the F Company; jumping into Holland with the E Company in 1944; and, after recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg, rejoining the E Co. to finish out the war. Webster arrived at Berchtesgarden, Austria, just before V-E Day, and saw occupation duty until 1946. I think the reason this is such a good book is because reading it is almost as if you are there.

LSU Press published Parachute Infantry in 1994 and it is still in print; in fact we licensed audio rights in late 2014. One of the most interesting things about this book is that David Webster was one of the now-famous “band of brothers.” Stephen Ambrose wrote about him in his book Band of Brothers, and Parachute Infantry was used as a reference guide for HBO’s “Band of Brothers.” His family was invited and flown to Normandy and Paris in June 2001 for the gala premiere of the miniseries. The family wrote to LSU Press and said that many of the actors told them how much they relied on Parachute Infantry in developing their characters throughout the filming.

I think it is a classic wartime memoir.

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