Cirrus@Austlit

An edited version of 329 letters written to Olson's wife, Ruth. His son, W. G. Olson, describes the purpose behind publishing the letters as 'to remind newer generations of Australians how the ordinary digger lived in those wartime years.' In his letters, Olson describes the sacrifices of the Australian infantry in New Guinea, the waste of war, and 'begins to question the purpose of the war, particularly that final year 1945.'

An 'Introduction' to the letters includes Olson's short story The Gods Were Kind, first published in Meanjin in 1945, and three poems. These works and W. G. Olson's Foreward [sic] are indexed separately. The individual letters have not been indexed.