1917–1918 WORLD WAR I JOURNAL OF WILLARD GODDARD—ATLANTIC CROSSING AND SERVICE IN FRANCE, WITH MILITARY PASS

Item #1747

A 7 × 9-inch manuscript journal containing 27 handwritten pages by American serviceman Willard Goddard, covering October 29, 1917–January 2, 1918. Includes an Overseas Casual Camp Pass issued to Goddard for a visit to New York City in October 1917, with a handwritten marginal note about meeting friends.
Opening with a dedication to friends and interested readers, Goddard recounts his departure through Hoboken aboard the USS Mount Vernon, passing the Statue of Liberty, and crossing the Atlantic under escort. Entries describe shipboard illness, gun practice, submarine fears, and reports of suspected spies signaling with flashlights. At Brest, he observes civilians approaching the transport to beg and sell wine.
Traveling inland in crowded boxcars, he passes through Le Mans to Nevers, where he records loading ammunition, unloading artillery wagons and helmets, and restacking machine-gun supplies. His observations include German prisoners, French children wearing wooden shoes, restaurant meals, musical entertainments, and a young French boy who had lost his parents at the front and slept beside him.
Later entries trace his journey through Bar-le-Duc, where he describes shell-damaged buildings, and Paris, where he rides the Métro, before reaching Camp Coëtquidan via Rennes. There he undertakes clerical and commissary duties involving invoices, clothing, and provisions. The journal records blackout precautions following reports of Zeppelins, soldiers dying of pneumonia, and a circulating rumor that President Wilson had been assassinated.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s entries are distinguished in red ink. Christmas brings a particularly candid expression of loneliness: “A very sorry boy there was over in France. No news from home or presents.” Despite his disappointment, he prepares coffee and sandwiches for men unloading trucks late at night. On New Year’s Day he writes that he made no resolutions, wishing only that the war would end soon.
A December 13 entry states that he began entering his diary notes into this book that morning, establishing that earlier portions were transcribed from existing notes. The last substantive entry is January 2, 1918, followed by an unused January 3 heading.
Bound in blue-and-white patterned boards with cloth spine and corners, showing rubbing, edge wear, and fraying. Pages exhibit scattered spotting, toning, variable ink fading, and occasional corrections, with generally readable handwriting. The accompanying pass is folded, stained, and edgeworn. An evocative account of an American serviceman’s overseas journey, supply work, and adjustment to wartime France.

Price: $450.00