There Is Yet More to Casualties of War

Lang's obituary in the New Yorker read in part:
"He was an inspired reporter, a lucid and enthralling writer of rare literary powers who brought deep feeling, deep thought, deep conviction to everything he touched."

Casualties of War received an extraordinary reception from critics when it was published as a 123-page book.

The London Observer called it "a classic story of the brutalizing effects of war comparable to the Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front."

The Christian Science Monitor compared it to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Writing in the Washington Post, Ward Just said: " . . . one can only marvel at the fine sense of morality, intelligence and literary skill of the man who put it together."

Lang's highest reward came perhaps in the closing words of his obituary in the New Yorker:

"He tried very hard to understand the people he wrote about and far more often than not he succeeded . . . at once a mysterious, charming, pensive, self-effacing, worried, lovable man, he will be keenly missed by this magazine."

There was only one copy of Casualties of War listed at the main library in Phoenix. I searched the shelves for it in vain.

"Sorry," an employee at the information desk told me. "It was borrowed a long time ago and never returned.