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Overview
Film rights to The Eagle and the Iron Cross are owned by Horizon Pictures, famed film producer Sam Spiegel's production company, now folded into Columbia Pictures/Sony. Mr. Spiegel produced The Bridge On the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, among many other well-known films.
The Eagle and the Iron Cross opens in a WW II prisoner-of-war camp. It centers upon a fierce struggle -- a battle both physical and moral -- waged by two young escapees against a foe at once relentless and sadistic. It takes its place among the probing war novels of our time, but one that offers the reader a jolting shock. For this POW camp is located in Arizona. And the two escapees are German soldiers named Matthe Teege and Albert Pomtow, both barely out of their teens. For them geo-politics was a jumble of words, and war is slaughter without meaning. They want to escape the bonds of barbed wire, not to fight for the Third Reich, but to flee the Fourth Reich that has been set up withing the prisoners' camp. Their haven is to be "America" -- or at least their image of America culled from Western novels and the words of our founding fathers.
But it is another America these POW's discover. They dream of joining the proud Indian tribes of the Wild West; instead the Indians with whom they take refuge have only a terrible captivity to share. One of them, Matthe, finds love -- but the girl is a teenage, gum-chewing Indian prostitute. The pair of Germans seek justice and are tracked by a group of ranchers -- vigilantes for whom torture and murder of their quarry is the highest form of patriotism. Finally, in a climax of explosive action and cutting irony, the one surviving young German, in alliance with a young Indian who has all but lost his manhood, must enter into a war with the Americans, a war that becomes a vivid counterpoint of the other war, with all moral roles reversed. The Eagle and the Iron Cross charts the breaking of an illusion; it is a gripping escape story, tragically based upon fact.
Glendon Swarthout did research on the old German POW camps during WW II and afterwards, even interviewing one of the old prisoners still living in Arizona. He utilized his own knowledge of WW II, having served as an infantry Sergeant in the famed 3rd Divison of Audie Murphy's during its Italian campaign, and worked in some of his personal observations about armed conflicts and their effects on the young men drafted to fight our wars. Totally original once more, this was the very first novel written about this provocative subject, set in America's prisoner-of-war camps, and from young Germans' points-of-view. Consequently, The Eagle and the Iron Cross became quite a controversial book in some reviewers' opinions.
The Eagle and the Iron Cross opens in a WW II prisoner-of-war camp. It centers upon a fierce struggle -- a battle both physical and moral -- waged by two young escapees against a foe at once relentless and sadistic. It takes its place among the probing war novels of our time, but one that offers the reader a jolting shock. For this POW camp is located in Arizona. And the two escapees are German soldiers named Matthe Teege and Albert Pomtow, both barely out of their teens. For them geo-politics was a jumble of words, and war is slaughter without meaning. They want to escape the bonds of barbed wire, not to fight for the Third Reich, but to flee the Fourth Reich that has been set up withing the prisoners' camp. Their haven is to be "America" -- or at least their image of America culled from Western novels and the words of our founding fathers.
But it is another America these POW's discover. They dream of joining the proud Indian tribes of the Wild West; instead the Indians with whom they take refuge have only a terrible captivity to share. One of them, Matthe, finds love -- but the girl is a teenage, gum-chewing Indian prostitute. The pair of Germans seek justice and are tracked by a group of ranchers -- vigilantes for whom torture and murder of their quarry is the highest form of patriotism. Finally, in a climax of explosive action and cutting irony, the one surviving young German, in alliance with a young Indian who has all but lost his manhood, must enter into a war with the Americans, a war that becomes a vivid counterpoint of the other war, with all moral roles reversed. The Eagle and the Iron Cross charts the breaking of an illusion; it is a gripping escape story, tragically based upon fact.
Glendon Swarthout did research on the old German POW camps during WW II and afterwards, even interviewing one of the old prisoners still living in Arizona. He utilized his own knowledge of WW II, having served as an infantry Sergeant in the famed 3rd Divison of Audie Murphy's during its Italian campaign, and worked in some of his personal observations about armed conflicts and their effects on the young men drafted to fight our wars. Totally original once more, this was the very first novel written about this provocative subject, set in America's prisoner-of-war camps, and from young Germans' points-of-view. Consequently, The Eagle and the Iron Cross became quite a controversial book in some reviewers' opinions.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940012200327 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Group (USA) |
| Publication date: | 02/24/2011 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Sales rank: | 1,068,638 |
| File size: | 349 KB |
About the Author
The late Glendon Swarthout was twice nominated for his publisher as their one author in the Fiction category for the Pulitzer Prize in America. His first Pulitzer nominee was They Came To Cordura from Random House in 1958. They Came To Cordura was filmed as a big budget Western by Columbia Pictures and released in December of 1959, starring Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth in one of her better later roles, Tab Hunter, and Van Heflin in this exploration of heroism and courage during the last mounted Calvary attack on Pancho Villa's irregulars during the Pershing Campaign in 1916 in Chihuahua, Mexico. Swarthout's 2nd Pulitzer nominee in Fiction was his biggest bestseller, Bless the Beasts & Children, for Doubleday in 1970. Famed director/producer Stanley Kramer filmed Beasts for Columbia Pictures in 1972 and the Carpenters' theme song from Bless the Beasts became a hit single and an Oscar nominee. Glendon had an amazing Hollywood track record with 8 of his novels and stories being filmed from a total published in the low 20's, as well as others being optioned for films. This was because his stories are so plot-strong, with interesting lead characters which stars like Gary Cooper and John Wayne really wanted to play. The Duke? Oh yeah, remember Wayne's final film, The Shootist? Well, that Western classic about a gunfighter dying of prostate cancer was also written by the great Glendon, as well as another bestseller about spring break in Ft. Lauderdale, Where the Boys Are, which became a huge low-budget hit film for MGM in 1960. From the first of the beach pictures to a Western about a master shootist, to an animal rights story about disturbed teenaged boys trying to free an Arizona buffalo herd from slaughter, to this war novel about Germans escaping from an American prisoner of war camp. Glendon's British publisher at Secker & Warburg thought he had the widest writing range of any American novelist he could think of, from comedy to tragedy, to teenaged adventure stories and wild college kids on spring break, as well as 5 juvenile novellas co-written with his wife, Kathryn Swarthout. What a truly amazing variety of stories from one author, even a contemporary mystery/thriller, Skeletons, from a man critics just couldn't put in one category, since his literary output was so varied. Try one of Glendon Swarthout's other novels also available on Barnes and Noble's ebook website and see if you like this bestselling novelist's superb storytelling skills.
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