Braided in Fire

Bibliography for Braided in Fire

Scroll down for an extensive list of bibliographic references in the categories listed below.

Arnold, Thomas St. John. Buffalo Soldiers. Manhattan, Kansas: Sunflower University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-89745-127-9

Biondi, Vittorio Lino. (With “A Brief History of Sommocolonia” by Dario Giannini.) La Battaglia di Sommocolonia: (The Battle of Sommocolonia) 26 Dicembre 1944. Fornaci di Barga (LU): Tipografia Gasperetti, edizione II, 2008. The next edition includes the text English (translated by Anne Leslie Saunders). Castelnuovo di Garfagnana (LU Italy): Garfagnana Editrice, 2011. ISBN 978-88-905675-5-1

Burtscher, Hans: an Austrian non-commissioned officer, 2nd Company of the Fourth Hoch Mountain Battalion, wrote an unpublished diary in German re the Sommocolonia battle. In 1970 Burtscher sent his diary to Alfredo Barroni in Barga and years later I was given a copy by Dott. Mario Giannetti. Cristoph Neizert kindly translated the work into English for me in 1997. In 2000, it was published in Italian in: Del Giudice, Davide, and Mori, Riccardo. La Linea Gotica tra la Garfagnana e Massa Carrara Settembre 1944–Aprile 1945: volume I. Massa: Libreria Gasperini, 2000.

Brooks, Thomas R. The War North of Rome: June 1944-May 1945. Sarpedon, NY: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81256-8

Chin, Brian B. Artillery at the Golden Gate: The Harbor Defenses of San Francisco in WWII. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1994.

Gibran, Daniel. The 92nd Infantry Division and the Italian Campaign in WWII. Jefferson, NC & London: McFarland & Co., 2001. ISBN 0-7864-1009-4

Hargrove, Hondon. Buffalo Soldiers in Italy. Jefferson, NC & London: McFarland & Co., 1985.  ISBN 0-89950-116-8

Captain Dennette A. Harrod’s Transcribed lecture on “The 366th Infantry Regiment and Lt. John R. Fox” at the Conference on Black Americans in World War II 9/9/92 at the US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA.

Hunter, Jehu C. (Communications Officer, 365th Infantry Regiment) and Lt. Col. Major Clark (Intelligence Officer & 597th Field Artillery). The Buffalo Division in World War II. A self-duplicated pamphlet. Copyright Jehu C. Hunter, March 28, 1985. TXU 191-906.

Lee, Ulysses. U.S. Army in World War II: The Employment of Negro Troops. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History U.S. Army, (first printed 1966—CMH pub 11–4), 1990. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-60003.

Pratt, James. Pratt found and copied a booklet originally printed in 1943: Pictorial History of the 366th Infantry Regiment with photos of 366th members at Ft. Devens, MA. After extensive research he put together a second booklet: Soldiers of the 366th Infantry Regiment at Rest in Italy showing Italian grave sites. These two works are unpublished, but Pratt has gifted copies of them to the Sommocolonia WWII museum. He is currently working on a similar book of grave sites of 366th soldiers buried in the U.S.

Wyattt, Survey Sergeant William (598th Field Artillery Battalion). “On the Point with Lt. Fox.” Washington, DC: Article in Buffalo Association Veterans Newsletter, September 1989. 

Almond, Edward. ‘Reminiscences of a Soldier: An Oral History of Lieutenant General Edward Mallory Almond (1892–1979),’ based on conversations with his grandson, Captain Thomas Galloway Fergusson, USA, at Anniston, Alabama on 25–30 March 1975.

Morehouse, Maggi. Fighting in the Jim Crow Army: Black Men and Women Remember WWII, compiled by Morehouse. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. ISBN  O-8476-9193-4

Motley, Mary Pennick. The Invisible Soldier: The Experience of the Black Soldier, World War II. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1975. ISBN 0-8143-1550-X

Terkel, Studs. The Good War. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1984.

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns. New York, NY: Random House,  2010. ISBN 978-0-679-44432-9

Baker, Vernon (with Ken Olsen). Lasting Valor: The Story of the Only Living Black World War II Veteran to Earn America’s Highest Distinction for Valor, the Medal of Honor. New York, NY: Genesis Press 1997, Bantam Books 1999. ISBN-13: 978-1885478306

Bertini, Tullio Bruno. Trapped in Tuscany: Liberated by the Buffalo Soldiers Boston: Dante University Press, 1998.  ISBN  0-937832-35-9

Brooke, Edward W. Bridging the Divide: My Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8135-3905-6 

Calhoun, Camilla. The White Moth: Three Generations at a Tuscan Villa. Kibworth Beauchamp, UK: Matador, 2018. ISBN 978-1-78901-565-2

Cornelisen, Ann. Women of the Shadows: wives and mothers of southern Italy. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1976. ISBN 1-58642-016

Daugherty, James Harden. The Buffalo Saga: A Story from World War II U.S. Army 92nd Infantry Division Known as the Buffalo Soldiers. Xlibris Corporation (www.Xlibris.com), 2009. ISBN 978-1-4363-9654-7

Fletcher, Catherine. The Black Prince of Florence. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0-19-061272-6

Foster, J. Curtis Jr., editor. Memoirs Buffalo Soldiers: 92nd Infantry Division World War II, Foster Enterprises (self-published), 2006. jccurtisfosterjr@earthlink.net. ISBN-13: 978-0-9789652-0-4 ISBN-10: 0-9789652-0-5

Houston, Ivan J. (with Gordon Cohn). Black Warriors: The Buffalo Soldiers of World War II. Bloomington, New York: iUniverse 2009. ISBN 978-1-4401-2782-3

Johnston, Carolyn Ross. My Father’s War: Fighting with the Buffalo Soldiers in World War II by a daughter of a white officer with the 92nd. University of Alabama Press, 2012. ISBN  978-0-8173-1768-3

McCall, Josephine Bolling. The Penalty for Success: My Father was Lynched in Lowndes County, Alabama. Montgomery, Al: McQuick Printing Co., 2015. ISPN 978-0-692-40622-9

Moscardini, Bernard. La Vacanza. Kennoway, Scotland: self-published by Spiderwize, 2009.  ISBN 978-1-907294-27-3

Origo, Iris. A Need to Testify: Portraits of Lauro de Bosis, Ruth Draper, Gaetano Salvemini and Ignazio Silone. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1984. ISBN 9781885586513

Reiss, Tom. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count of Monte Cristo. New York: Crown Publishers, 2012.

Russell, Harold E. Company I 366th Infantry. Pittsburgh: RoseDog Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8059-8992-2

Silcox, Nancy. Samuel Wilbert Tucker: The Story of a Civil Rights Trailblazer and the 1939 Alexandria Library Sit-In. Published by www.history4all.com 2013. ISBN 978-1-934285-20-6

Smith, Rothacker. No Way Out: The War Story of a WWII Black Buffalo Soldier. Self-published: www.booksurge.com, 2009. ISBN: 1-4392-5532-6.  EAN 13: 9781439255322

Stille, Alexander. Benevolence and Betrayal:  Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism. New York, NY:  Summit Books, Simon & Schuster, 1991. ISBN 0-312-42153-2

Hood, Stuart. Carlino. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1985. 978-0856355424

Levi, Primo. If This Is a Man and The Truce. (paperback 2003).

Survival in Auschwitz. New York, NY: Classic House Books, 2008.

The Drowned and the Saved. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2017. ISBN 978-1-5011-6763-8 (Originally published Torino: Einaudi, 1986.)

Lewis, Norman. Naples ’44. London: Eland, 1983.

Newby, Eric. Love and War in the Apennines. First published by Hodder & Stoughton 1971, reprinted by Penguin Books, 1978.

Origo, Iris. War in Val D’Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943–1944. Boston: D. R. Godine, 1984. (originally published in London by J Cape, 1947).

Atkinson, Rick. The Day of the Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943–1944 [volume two of The Liberation Trilogy]. New York, NY: Henry Holt, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8050-6289-2

Booker, Brian. African Americans in the United States Army in World War II. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company, 2008.

Brooks, Thomas R. The War North of Rome June 1944–May 1945. Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81256-8

Hastings, Max. Inferno: The World at War 1939–1945. New York, NY: Random House, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-307-27359-8. (Originally published in London by Harper Press, 2010.)

Holland, James. Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944–1945. New York, NY: Harper Press, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37396-2

Jennings, Christian. At War on the Gothic Line: Fighting in Italy, 1944-45. New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books(an imprint of St. Martin’s Press), 2016.  ISBN 978-1-250-06517-9

Katz, Robert. The Battle for Rome: The Germans, the Allies, The Partisans, and the Pope, September 1943–June 1944. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2003. ISBN 0-7432-5808-8 (Pbk)

Lamb, Richard. War in Italy 1943–1945: A Brutal Story. London: John Murray Ltd., 1993. ISBN  0-7195-4933-7

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem with Alan Steinberg. Black Profiles in Courage. New York: William Morrow and Co, 1996. ISBN 0-688-13097-6

Cone, James H. The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013. ISBN 978-1-57075-937

Francis, Charles E. & Adolph Caso. The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed a Nation. Boston: Branden Books, 1997. ISBN 978-0-8283-2626-1

Gates, Henry L. & Kevin M Burke.  And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK. New York: Harper Collins, 2015. ISBN 978-0-06242-700-7

Grampp, William D.:  “The Italian Lira, 1938 - 45,” The Journal of Politcal Economy, Vol. 54, No. 4, August 1946.

Hapgood, David & David Richardson. Montecassino. New York, NY:  Congdon & Weed, Inc. 1984. ISBN 0-306-81121-9

Lanning, Lt. Col. Michael Lee. The African American Soldier: from Crispus Attuckss to Colin Powell. (Birch Lane Press, 1997)  New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2003.

Lichtenfeld, Norman S. The Invisible Soldiers of the Battle of the Bulge: The Wereth 11. Available through the Central Florida WWII Museum. http://www.cfloridaww2museum.org/Wereth11.html

Litwack, Leon F. How Free Is FREE? The Long Death of Jim Crow. (The Nathan I. Huggins lectures) Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-03152-4

Lollis, Edward. Monumental Beauty: Peace Monuments and Museums Around the World. Published by Peace Partners International, 2013. See: http://www.peacepartnersintl.net

Osmont, Marie-Louise. The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont.1940–1944. New York, NY: Random House, The Discovery Channel Press, 1994.

Pieri, Joe. Isle of the Displaced: An Italian-Scot's memoirs of internment during the Second World War. Glasgow: Neil Wilson Publishing Ltd. 1997, ISBN 1-897784-57-0

Potter, Lou with William Miles & Nina Rosenblum. Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. ISBN  0-15-151283-3

Sarti, Roland. Long Live the Strong: A Study of a village in the Apennines. Amherst: Univ. of MA Press, 1985.

Saunders, Anne Leslie. A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy: Museums, Monuments, and Battlegrounds. Charleston, South Carolina: Travel Guide Press: 2010 (second edition 2016). ISBN 9781540566041

Scheck, Raffael. Hitler's African victims: the German Army massacres of Black French soldiers in 1940. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-85799-4

Stone, Tanya Lee. Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers. Shenzhen, Guangdong, China: Candlewick Press (Somerville, MA): 2013.

 US War Department Technical Manual 9-2300, February 7th, 1944.

Bohjalian, Chris. The Buffalo Soldier. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2002. ISBN 978-0-375-72546-3

Bowen, Rhys. The Tuscan Child. Seattle: Lake Union Publishing, 2018. ISBN-13: 9781503951822

Crichton, Robert. The Secret of Santa Vittoria. Dublin, Ireland: Dominican 1966.

Johnson, Shelton. Gloryland. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-57805-175-5

McBride, James. The Miracle at St. Anna. New York, NY: Riverhead, 2002. ISBN 1-57322-971-7

McBride, James. Five Carat Soul. New York, NY: Riverhead, 2017. (Short stories: among them “The Christmas Dance”, a 39-page story based very loosely on John Fox in the Sommocolonia battle.) ISBN 978-07352-1669-3

Russell, Mary Doria. A Thread of Grace. New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 0375501843

Sheres, Richard Samuel. Keeping Gideon. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2006. ISBN 978-0-595-40841-2

Wurtele, Margaret. The Golden Hour. New York, NY: New American Library (Penguin Group), 2012. ISBN 978-0-451-23708-8

Useful English References

In the mid-seventies, Women of the Shadows by Ann Cornelisen came out and I was riveted by the author’s intimate portraits of the trials and heroism of the peasant mountain women she lived among in Basilicata. Although she was writing about life in southern Italy, an even poorer area than the villages of the Apennines, I realized I’d found a model to emulate when I got around to describing my peasant neighbors. That it took me so long to make the attempt may have to do with the high standard Cornelisen set.

Cornelisen gave me the first nudge, but many other books on the list below affected the writing of Braided in Fire. A few of the military books and broad based histories listed above, I referred to selectively, concentrating mainly on information relevant to the Serchio Valley and the 366th, but with some I pored over every word and returned to frequently. These included the military books by Hondon Hargrove, Daniel Gibran and Vittorio Biondi; autobiographies by Ivan Houston and Vernon Baker (written with Ken Olsen); and, the oral history by Mary Pennick Motley, The Invisible Soldier: The Experience of the Black Soldier, World War II. The last mentioned, published in 1975, was an excellent forerunner in capturing the black soldiers’ experience in WWII. I am forever in Motley’s debt.

A few of the books I made use of amply have interesting websites. These include: Carolyn Ross Johnston’s My Father’s War: Fighting with the Buffalo Soldiers in World War II by a daughter of a white officer with the 92nd, and Ivan Houston’s Black Warriors: The Buffalo Soldiers of World War II. See RELATED LINKS in the RESOURCES section.

The following resources are written in Italian.

There are a few small editions in Italian which speak of Sommocolonia’s WWII events. In Braided in Fire I naturally drew extensively from my own book of excerpts from my interviews with villagers.

Biondi, Vittorio Lino. (Con “Breve Storia di Sommocolonia” da Dario Giannini.) La Battaglia di Sommocolonia: 26 Dicembre 1944. Fornaci di Barga (LU): Tipografia Gasperetti, edizione II, 2008. Also listed under books in English as it was translated in 2011 by Anne Leslie Saunders.

Nardini, Antonio, Sommocolonia, Edizioni “l’Ora di Barga” Tipografia Gasperetti, 1993. This is mostly about Sommocolonia’s ancient history but it devotes a short section to the village’s WWII period.

Per Ricordare Sommocolonia:  26 Dicembre 1944, testi raccolti e introdotti da Moreno Salvadori. Prefazione di Mons. Piero Giannini. Barga:  l’Ora di Barga 1994). To Remember Sommocolonia is a compilation of previously published articles, printed in honor of the fiftieth commemoration of the battle in the village. I provided one article included which speaks of the events from the point of view of an African American artilleryman: “On the Point with Lt. Fox” (Buffalo Association Veterans Newsletter, 9/89).

Satti, Giovanni. Unpublished article “L’Attacco Tedesco a Sommocolonia e La Battaglia per Arginarne L’Avanzata—26 Dicembre 1944.” (The German Attack on Sommocolonia and the Battle to Stem their Advance—December 26, 1944.) I obtained this article and one he wrote describing retaking Sommocolonia at the Istituto Storico della Resistenza (Historical Institute of the Resistance) in Lucca. Satti, who was indeed a partisan, claimed participation in both the battle and in retaking the village. His stories are entertaining but mostly invention. They are woefully incorrect.

Wales, Solace (Sheets) La Battaglia ed il Bombardamento di Sommocolonia:  Testimonianze dal Vivo  (The Battle and the Bombing of Sommocolonia: The Villagers Tell the Story). Pisa: Offset Grafica 1996. The printing was made possible by Monsignore Piero Giannini.

Early on in my research, Mons. Piero Giannini gave me a copy of Fabrizio Federigi’s Val di Serchio e Versilia Linea Gotica about the WWII military history of the region. I studied it initially and returned to it innumerable times as it is both chronological and comprehensive. I have appreciated Davide Del Giudice’s work (and his occasional direct assistance). Cesare Fiaschi’s book about the Monterosa Division provided a valuable Axis point of view. Bruno Sereni’s books were essential for their information about the local partisans as well as understanding the wartime ambiance in Barga. I was privileged to read the unpublished manuscript of Ida Nardini (thanks to her daughter-in-law, Giovanna Nardini) which provided me with details about her role. Especially enjoyable for background information were the books by Gualtiero Pia and Maria Vittoria Stefani.

Italian books including those mentioned in the above paragraph:

Binini, Eugenio.  La Guerra in Garfagnana dalle relazioni dei parroci (1944–45). Castelnuovo di Garfagnana: ”Corriere di Garfagnana,” 1995.

Del Giudice, Davide, e Mori, Riccardo. La Linea Gotica tra la Garfagnana e Massa Carrara  Settembre 1944–Aprile 1945: volume I.  Milano: Ritter, 2003 [2000]

Del Giudice, Davide, e Mori, Riccardo. La Linea Gotica tra la Garfagnana e Massa Carrara  Settembre 1944–Aprile 1945: volume II. Milano: Ritter, 2003

Dell’Aringa, Gino. I Bei Tempi Andati: Tradizioni e Usanze della Piana Lucchese. Lucca: Maria Pacini Fazzi Editore, 1981.

Federigi, Fabrizio. Val di Serchio e Versilia Linea Gotica. Roma: “Versilia Oggi,” (Via Dandolo, 8), 1979.

Fiaschi, Cesare. La guerra sulla Linea Gotica occidentale:  Div. Monterosa 1944–45. Bologna: Lo Scarabeo, 1999. (un autore dell’Asse—Axis author)

La guerra in Garfagnana dalle relazioni dei parroci (1944–45).  Edizione a cura di Corrado Giorgetti, Pier Luigi Raggi e Guido Rossi. Lucca: Modernografica, 1995.

Giachetti, Cipriano. Articolo “Tutto pronto per la riappertura del Duomo.” (Everything ready for the reopening of the Duomo) Barga (LU): La Corsonna, 29 agosto, 1939 numero 10. And Ibid. Article “Nel Duomo Risorto.” (In the Resurrected Duomo.) Barga (LU): La Corsonna, 17 settembre, 1939 (XVII) numero 11.

Giannasi, Andrea. Il Brasile in Guerra: La partecipazione della Forca Expedicionaria Brasileira alla Campagna d’Italia (1944–1945). Civitavecchia - Roma: Prospettiva editrice, 2004.

Giannecchini, Lilio e Pardini, Giuseppe:  Eserciti Popolazione e Resistenza sulle Alpi Apuane. Lucca: S. Marco Litotipo, 1997.

Guidi, Oscar.  Gargfagnana 1943–1945: La Guerra. La Resistenza. Lucca: Maria Pacini Fazzi editore, 1994.  ISBN 88-7246-132-4

LA LINEA GOTTICA SETTORE OCCIDENTALE 1943–1945: Atti del XIV Convegno di Studi  Borgo a Mozzano 9 Maggio 2004, publicato dal Comune di Borgo a Mozzano, 2006.

Levi, Carlo. Cristo Si è Fermato a Eboli. Torino: Einaudi, 1945. (later US edition: ISBN-10: 8806219340)

Lombardi, Mons. Lino. Barga sulla Linea Gotica. Barga (LU): Tipografia Gasperetti, 1955.

Lombardi, Mons. Lino.  All’Ombra del Duomo di Barga. Barga (LU) edizioni “L’ora di Barga” Tiporafia Gasperetti, 1986.

Nardini, Antonio. Castelvecchio Pascoli. Barga: Tipografia Gasperetti, 1998.

Nardini, Ida. “Sulla Linea Gottica, Anno 1943, Anno 1944.” monoscritto non publicato, grazie a Giovanna Nardini.

Padre d’Amato. Ricordi di guerra: 25 settembre 1944–18 aprile 1945  known as “diario di Padre d’Amato.” published in the newspaper of the sanctuary.  Santuario di Maria SS della Stella di Migliano (LU).

Pansa, Giampaolo: Il Sangue dei vinti. (The Blood of the Defeated) Milan: Sperling & Kupfer, 2003.

Pardini, Giuseppe: LA REPUBBLICA SOCIALE ITALIANA e la guerra in provincia di Lucca (1940–1945). Lucca: Istituto Storico della Resistenza, Edizione S. Marco Litotipo Editore, 2001

Pellegrinetti, Mario. Appunti per una Storia Della Guerra Civile in Garfagnana 1943–1945. Lucca: Maria Pacini Fazzi editore, 2003.

Petracchi, Giorgio. Al Temp che Berta Filava. Alleati e patrioti sulla Linea Gottica (1943-1945). Milano: Gruppo Ugo Mursia, Editore, 1995. ISBN  88-425-1952-9

Petracchi, Giorgio. “Intelligence” Americana e Partigiani sulla Linea Gotica: i documenti segreti dell’OSS. Foggia: Bastogi Editrice, 1992.

Pia, Gualtiero. La Revisione: Memorie del mio Novecento. Barga (Lucca): Tipografia Gasperetti, 1998.

Pia, Gualtiero. Linea Gotica:  Azione scenica sul tema dei sette mesi del fronte di guerra nel territorio barghigiano durante il conflitto mondiale 1939–1945. Fornaci di Barga: Tipografia Gasperetti, 1999.

Pinagli, Don Palmiro.  La Guerra in Garfagnana:  Diario 30 aprile 1944–22 aprile 1945. Castelnuovo di Garfagnana (LU): Edizioni della Rocca, 1987.

Rosi, Carlo Gabrielli. opuscolo: Le Fortificazioni della ‘Gotica’ fra Lucca e Pistoia: l’aggiramento della Media Val di Serchio—La salvezza dei centri abitati. Lucca: Grafica Artigiana, 1986.

Savelli, Laura. L'Industria in Montagna: Uomini e donne a lavoro negli stabilimenti della Societa`Metallurgica Italiana. Florence: Leo S. Olschki editor, 2004.

Sereni, Bruno. Barga nella lunga estate del ’43. Barga: Edizione Il Giornale di Barga, Gasperetti, 1974.

Sereni, Bruno. Barga: Paese Come Tanti. Lucca: Maria Pacini Fazzi, seconda edizione 1987, (prima edizione, Pescia, 1947).

Sereni, Bruno. La Guerra a Barga. Barga (LU): Edizione Il Giornale di Barga, 1968.

Silone, Ignazio. Vino e Pane. Milano: Mondadori, 1955. (First published in 1936.)

Stefani, Maria Vittoria. Voci della Vecchia Barga. Barga (LU): Tipografia Gasperetti, 1979.

Zerboglio, Adolfo. Barga: Memorie e Note Vagabonde. Barga (LU): Tip. Gasperetti, 1992. (written in 1929).