On the Eve of World War Three, Two from World War One

We find ourselves guided by world events, a desire for peace, and, as always, the historical calendar in the title of today’s post. As it happens, two major literary figures from The Great War shared a June 22 birthday: Alan Seeger (1888-1916) and Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970).

Seeger was the uncle of Pete Seeger and his equally musical siblings. Harvard educated, he was was already developing a reputation as a poet at the time of his death. Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were both fans of his work. The astute will note that 1916 was a full year prior to America’s entry into WWI. He had volunteered with the French Foreign Legion, and died at the Somme. His best known works include “Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen in France”, and this one, the prophetic “I Have a Rendezvous with Death”.

Though he was of French ancestry, Erich Maria Remarque was born and raised in Prussia and drafted into the German Imperial army in 1917. His wartime experiences formed the basis of his 1929 novel All Quiet on the Western Front. The 1930 Hollywood screen version won a best director Oscar for Lewis Milestone, and featured Lew Ayres and Louis Wolfheim, and in smaller roles, some notable silent comedians: Slim Summerville, Raymond Griffith, and Heinie Conklin. There was also a 1979 CBS tv movie based on the book starring Richard Thomas, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Ian Holm, and Patricia Neal. And I hope you’ve seen the terrific 2022 German version, directed by Edward Berger, which won four Oscars.

The World Wars, and the loud voices that brought them about, obscured a fact that the world used to know: that there had long been a strong liberal, humanist strain in German culture stretching back to Goethe and Schiller and beyond. Naturally these voices were stifled when the strong men came to power. Thus, though his best known book was just as popular in his home country as it was internationally, Goebbels banned it in 1933, and Remarque was forced to flee to Switzerland. His book is, after all, about the futility and evil of war — and the Nazis were gearing up to make a lot of war, because that’s what Fascists do. When they gain the upper hand, it is well to remember the voices of dissent.

Remarque was not just a one-hit wonder. Most of his other novels were quite successful in his own time, though today only remains well known. In fact, most of his books because Hollywood films, though none were hits on the scale of his block buster. Most are set in Germany during various significant periods such as the Weimar Era, or during the Nazis regime. His other works include The Dream Room (1920), Station at the Horizon (1928), The Road Back (1931), The Enemy (1931), Three Comrades (1936), Flotsam (1939), Arch of Triumph (1945), Spark of Life (1952), The Black Obelisk (1956), Heaven Has No Favorites (1961), The Night in Lisbon (1962), The Promised Land (1970), and Shadows in Paradise (1971). He also wrote several plays and screenplays.

Remarque’s sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, entitled The Road Back was made into a Hollywood film in 1937, directed by James Whale and starring John King, Richard Cromwell,Slim Summerville, Andy Devine, Louise Fazenda, Noah Beery Jr., Lionel Atwill, Spring Byington,Al Shean, and an uncredited Dwight Frye. Frank Borzage directed the 1939 adaptation of Three Comrades, with a screenplay co-written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This one had Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, and Robert Young.Flotsam became the 1941 film So Ends Our Night, directed by John Cromwell, with Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, and Frances Dee. There were two screen versions of Arch of Triumph. All Quiet‘s Lewis Milestone directed the 1948 theatrical film with Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton, Ruth Warrick, and Louis Calhern. There was also a 1984 tv version with Anthony Hopkins, Donald Pleasence, and Lesley-Anne Down. Believe it or not, the 1977 movie Bobby Deerfield with Al Pacino, directed by Sydney Pollack, was based on Remarque’s Heaven Has No Favorites. At this writing, there is also reportedly a movie version of The Night in Lisbon in development.

Though married at the time, Remarque had affairs with Hedy Lamarr, Dolores del Rio, and Marlene Dietrich. His second wife (m. 1958) was Paulette Goddard. Make Love, Not War!