University Library News Release
Date: December 15, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Library Publishes World War II Correspondence of NMSU Dean
During World War II, New Mexico State University Dean Daniel Jett carried on a personal correspondence with hundreds of his former students. The letters have now been compiled into a book, The Whole Damned World: New Mexico Aggies at War: 1941-1945: World War II Correspondence of Dean Daniel B. Jett (NMSU Library; Rio Grande Books, 2008).
The book is available from Rio Grande Books. Call (505) 344-9382, email info@nmsantos.com or visit http://www.nmsantos.com.
The correspondence was edited by University Archivist Martha Shipman Andrews with an introduction by Richard A. Melzer, a history professor at the University of New Mexico Valencia campus. The book was published by the NMSU Library in collaboration with Rio Grande Books.
From 1938 to 1947, Dean Jett was the Dean of Engineering at what was known then as the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (later NMSU). During the war years, Jett composed class newsletters and wrote scores of letters to each of the men and women of the School of Engineering who served overseas or stateside.
Jett's energy and enthusiasm boosted morale among those serving as soldiers or nurses, as well as those at home fighting to keep the school going during hard times. His students wrote to him as well. These letters provide indelible insights into the lives of young men and women involved in cataclysmic world events. They also reveal a nostalgia for the college, infused with hope for returning to school when the war ended.
Andrews said, "The sixteen million Americans who served in World War II sometimes felt themselves to be nameless cogs in the vast war machine. The poet Randall Jarrell referred to them as 'killable puppets.' By corresponding with more than a thousand former NMCA & MA students scattered throughout the world during this terrible period, Dean Jett helped to reaffirm the individuality and worth of these young men and women. Sixty-five years later through his remarkable kindness and concern, the sacrifices, fears, hopes, humor and sorrow of those young people come to life through their letters. We feel privileged to house these indelible glimpses into the lives of New Mexico's 'greatest generation' in the University Archives."
For more information, contact Andrews at (575) 646-5028 or email mandrews@lib.nmsu.edu.
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