The Man I Knew Was Once a Boy

A moving portrait of one young man's coming of age, set against the backdrop of World War II, in his own words. Born in Philadelphia in 1923, Herbert Barness was the second son of immigrant parents who had arrived in America at the dawn of the twentieth century. He spent his childhood on the family farm in Warrington, Bucks County, PA, and attended the town's one-room schoolhouse. He then attended Doylestown High School. In 1940, at the urging of one of his teachers, he entered Bucknell University and began studying to become an engineer. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and everything changed-and Herb, like so many other young men, found that his future took a dramatic turn. His story is revealed through the letters he wrote home to his parents and to his brother Lewis, which were saved and stored by his mother and then ultimately handed down to his daughter Lynda decades later. Written from 1938-1948, this remarkable compilation of letters reveals a poignant, reflective, and deeply personal account of a young boy who becomes a man during these turbulent years.