Monuments Man

I learned about real-life Monuments Man James Rorimer when I was doing research for The Roses Underneath. I became fascinated with his story - a Harvard-educated curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who signed up as an infantry man but was quickly recruited into the newly formed Monuments Fine Arts & Archives Section and then swiftly promoted to chief of the MFAA Section of the Seventh Army Western Military District. If you saw the movie The Monuments Men, the character played by Matt Damon was based on him.  I based aspects of Captain Henry Cooperʻs personality (his impatience with military protocols for example) on James Rorimer as well , but I really wished I could get my hands on his out-of-print memoir. I tried for years.

Needless to say when I received a very kind email from James Rorimer's son, Louis, some some five years ago, I was beyond thrilled to make real-world contact with someone so directly connected to the Monuments Men. (Louis was very gracious to join  the virtual launch of That Which Remains as well) . Now Louis and his sister Anne have re-published their father's first-hand account of his days as a Monuments Man and it's absolutely fantastic. I am working my way through it, and learning so much - now I feel like I know Cooper a little better.

The book is full of photos and maps and exquisite detail about the incredible day-to-day events of the Monument Men's work and adds important information to our understanding of that work.

The Wall Street Journal called it a "vivid boots-on-the-ground memoir that puts you at the center of the action... [that is] utterly extraordinary—and extraordinarily important—book." I fully agree. Absolutely required reading for anyone interested in the subject. Even though itʻs a page-turner, I am dishing it out in small sessions to make it last longer.

Copies are available Bookshop.org, B&N, and Amazon, or check with your local indie bookshop!