Words at War was an NBC anthology of 1943-1945 that adapted contemporary books about World War II into radio drama. Produced with support from the Council on Books in Wartime, the series turned recent journalism, memoir and fiction into dramatic broadcasts. Golden Radio Hour preserves 90 recordings.
NBC wartime anthology dramatizing contemporary books about World War II, produced with Council on Books in Wartime/war-information context.
Names that turn up again and again in the surviving run include Anton M. Leader (director), Jack Costello (host and announcer), William Meeder (organ, performer, and composer), Morris Mamorsky (composer, conductor, and radio adaptor), Joseph Losey (director), Garnet Garrison (director), and Gerald Holland (radio adaptor and writer).
Across its run, the surviving broadcasts are tied to NBC Radio Network and Armed Forces Radio Service.
The stories often return to World War II, fascism and Nazism, wartime home front, military service and combat, occupation and resistance, and war aims and international affairs.
The show also sits in a wider radio history that includes Council on Books in Wartime partnership, Office of War Information wartime context, and World War II contemporary-document adaptation.
If you are following the same actors and creative circles, related programs worth opening next include Columbia Workshop, X Minus One, The Chase, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and Theater Five.
Search this program or browse in its validated catalog order.
An imaginative reconstruction based on Combined Operations follows a British soldier who volunteers for commando service, survives punishing training and joins a raid on the German-held French coast. The raiders…
A dramatized selection from correspondent Clark Lee's They Call It Pacific traces the collapse of early Allied confidence as Japan sweeps through the Pacific. Lee moves from Shanghai to Manila,…
A dramatization of Boris Voyetekhov's The Last Days of Sevastopol follows a Soviet correspondent into the besieged city during its final defense against German forces. He witnesses ruined streets, wounded…
The British light cruiser HMS Artemis escorts a vital convoy through the Mediterranean while enemy aircraft, cruisers and battleships close in. Officers and ratings at every station struggle to keep…
A dramatized eyewitness report from Robert St. John's From the Land of Silent People recounts scenes from Yugoslavia and Greece as Axis occupation and war overwhelm civilian life. St. John's…
American correspondent Gwen Dew is trapped in Hong Kong when Japan attacks in December 1941. She lives through the siege, surrender and months of internment marked by hunger, brutality and…
A comic adaptation of Love at First Flight follows Lester Dowd from his post-Pearl Harbor decision to join the Navy through the absurdities of aviation training. Medical exams, drills, airsickness,…
A repeat broadcast of the dramatization of Boris Voyetekhov's The Last Days of Sevastopol follows a Soviet correspondent through the besieged city during its final defense against German forces. He…
A dramatization of George F. Beurling and Leslie Roberts' Malta Spitfire traces Beurling from a Canadian boy obsessed with airplanes to a fighter pilot defending Malta. Rejected at first because…
A dramatization of merchant seaman Fred Herman's Dynamite Cargo follows an Arctic convoy carrying wartime supplies toward Russia. Herman describes the strained, mixed crew aboard his cargo ship, repeated submarine…
Through letters to her absent husband, Anne Hilton describes how she and her daughters adjust after he leaves for military service. The family rents his room, takes on new responsibilities…
French prisoner John Hélion survives forced labor in Germany by clinging to one purpose: escape. Fellow prisoners pool maps, money, clothing, forged papers and hard-won knowledge from failed attempts, even…
A dramatized selection from Agnes Smedley's Battle Hymn of China presents episodes from her years among Chinese soldiers, guerrillas and civilians resisting Japan. She describes wounded men caring for one…
A dramatization of Mark Murphy's 83 Days recounts the true ordeal of Seaman Second Class Basil Izzi after his merchant ship is torpedoed in the South Atlantic. Izzi and a…
American widow Etta Shiber and her friend Kitty turn their occupied Paris home into part of an escape network for stranded British soldiers. With forged papers, hospital contacts and help…
Correspondent Corey Ford describes the largely unseen Aleutian campaign through the men fighting weather and Japanese forces in the fog-bound islands. Patrol crews discover enemy movements, bases are built under…
Merchant captain Jack returns from wartime service physically recovered but shaken by the loss of a ship and crew, and fears that no company will trust him with another command.…
A dramatized selection from Ernie Pyle's Here Is Your War presents his ground-level view of the North African campaign. Instead of following one plot, it moves through scenes of dirty…
Lieutenant John Mason Brown dramatizes portions of his own To All Hands, recounting service aboard an American flagship during the amphibious invasion of Sicily. Assigned to the bridge, Brown broadcasts…
Bulgarian journalist Michael Padev, a correspondent for British newspapers, is arrested after German influence tightens over wartime Bulgaria. Interrogation and torture give way to imprisonment in the Gondavoda camp, where…
A satirical radio treatment of Mussolini and Italian fascism, based on Fruits of Fascism, Sawdust Caesar and Balcony Empire, lets the personified city of Rome address the fallen dictator directly.…
A Pearl Harbor Day collection of dramatized letters written by servicemen from training camps and battlefronts. The letters move from hopes about citizenship, family and the future to firsthand accounts…
A dramatization of Carlos P. Romulo's Mother America frames the fall of Bataan and Corregidor within a broader account of the American relationship with the Philippines. Romulo traces the islands…
A dramatization of Frank Laskier's Log Book follows a troubled young Englishman from reformatory life into the British Merchant Marine. Harsh ships, poverty and rough treatment nearly deepen his alienation,…
A dramatization of Hendrik Willem van Loon's The Ninth Commandment follows Samuel, a devout Dutch picture-frame maker who takes in a German refugee boy before the war. Samuel punishes the…
A dramatization based on Otto Zoff's They Shall Inherit the Earth examines what modern war has done to children in different countries. Scenes contrast ordinary childhood play with militarization, hunger,…
After a torpedo sinks his ship in the South Atlantic, Seaman Basil Izzi and a handful of survivors crowd onto a raft with almost no food or water. Over eighty-three…
A dramatization of Lin Tai Yi's War Tide follows young Loyin as war destroys the ordinary life of her Chinese family. Her brother goes to fly against the Japanese, her…
A documentary-style adaptation of Captain Frederick J. Bell's Condition Red uses the destroyer he calls the G to explain life and combat aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer in the South…
Belgian civilian Jean Boucher joins the White Brigade resistance after the German occupation and takes part in espionage, sabotage and escape work while his family lives under constant threat. The…
A biographical dramatization traces George Washington Carver from a child born into slavery to the scientist and teacher who transformed agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute. Carver pursues education despite poverty…
A dramatization of Japanese artist Taro Yashima's The New Sun recounts his opposition to militarism and fascism inside prewar Japan. His drawings criticize military domination, leading to arrest, interrogation and…
A documentary-style adaptation of Selden Menefee's Assignment USA surveys wartime America after a 15,000-mile reporting trip. The program praises enormous industrial and military effort while also confronting racial discrimination, southern…
A dramatic impression of Vicki Baum's The Weeping Wood tells the global story of natural rubber through exploitation, plantation development, war and scientific innovation. Scenes move from abused Amazon rubber…
A documentary-style adaptation of George W. Gray's Science at War asks whether scientific progress is responsible for modern destruction or merely a tool shaped by human choices. Through dramatized examples…
A dramatization based on Conrad Heiden's Der Fuehrer traces the fabrication and political use of the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The program follows the forged document from…
A dramatization of John Hersey's A Bell for Adano follows Italian-American Major Victor Joppolo as he administers the newly occupied town of Adano. He works to restore food, water, local…
A radio impression of Anna Louise Strong's Wild River traces the building of the great Dnieper dam as a symbol of Soviet industrialization and collective sacrifice. Workers endure primitive housing,…
A dramatization of Vercors' The Silence of the Sea follows an elderly Frenchman and his niece after a cultured German officer is billeted in their occupied home. They answer his…
A dramatization of Quentin Reynolds' The Curtain Rises follows the correspondent from another departure overseas through Allied campaigns in Russia, North Africa, Sicily and Italy. Reynolds is especially struck by…
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