FIRST TO THE FRONT: The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle, Trailblazing Female War Correspondent by Lorissa Rinhart - REVIEW

 

Chances are you haven't heard the name Dickey Chapelle. I hadn't before reading this book. Dickey was a woman war correspondent who did just about everything first. Her focus was telling the stories of the oppressed and forgotten. Her radical style of reporting is highlighted in a new book, FIRST TO THE FRONT ((StMartinsPress) by Lorissa Rinehart.

She was a groundbreaking photojournalist who focused on the dangerous stories her male colleagues wouldn't touch, beginning at WWII. She survived torture in a communist prison, marched down the Ho Chi Minh Trail with South Vietnamese, ultimately being the first American woman killed in combat in 1965, while on assignment marching side by side with the Marines.

Her story is one that must be told. Readers will be ripping through Rinehart's book until the very last page. Dickey faced discrimination on the battlefield and at home for reporting her stories by any means necessary. 

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Michener recalled, "I was cautious, she was totally fearless. I would draw back from spots of danger, she would always crowd forward. ... If she were a man, they would have called her a hero." 

I feel fortunate having read FIRST TO THE FRONT and made aware of Dickey Chappelle. I believe readers will have a similar experience.

Lorissa Rinehart writes about art, war, and their points of intersection. 

Her writing has recently appeared in Hyperallergic, Perfect Strangers, and Narratively, among other publications. 

When not writing she can be found photographing the natural world impinging upon the urban landscape or digging in the dirt with her husband and two sons in Santa Barbara, California.

She holds an MA from NYU in Experimental Humanities and a BA in Literature from UC Santa Cruz. She is proudly represented by Lowenstein Associates.

Instagram @Lorissa_Rinehart