Tom Lea, Life Magazine, and World War II

Published in conjunction with the exhibition "Tom Lea, Life Magazine, and World War II" (organized by the Tom Lea Institute with the National Museum of the Pacific War and The National World War II Museum), this catalogue features eyewitness reporting, in pictures and words, by the American painter and writer Tom Lea (1907-2001). With scholarly essays by Adair Margo and Melissa Renn, the book traces Lea's journey from El Paso, Texas, to various theatres of war from 1941 to 1945. Lea traveled over 100,000 miles for Life, embedded with soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, whose experiences he depicted. Lea was the most celebrated of Life's World War II artist-correspondents, and his paintings appeared in more than ten issues, recording in full-color spreads the convoys in the North Atlantic; life aboard the aircraft carrier Hornet; Stilwell's command in China; the marine landing on Peleliu in the Pacific; and military heroes of World War II. The exhibition highlights twenty-six of the eighty-three paintings Lea completed for Life, now housed in the US Army Center of Military History at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.