Historical novelist to speak at UD Commencement May 28

Jeff Shaara

9:07 a.m., March 21, 2005--Historical novelist Jeff Shaara, whose bestselling works have chronicled the American experience during the Revolutionary War, before and after the Civil War and during World War I, will speak at the University of Delaware’s 156th Commencement, scheduled at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 28, in Delaware Stadium on the Newark campus, Sharon H. Dorr, director of alumni and University relations, announced today.

Commencement, which is free and open to the public, is held outdoors, rain or shine.

“In his novels, Jeff Shaara has brought to life some of the most turbulent times and most dynamic figures in American history,” Dorr said. “His ability to marry telling historic detail with characters who engage with the reader’s emotions has made all of his novels national bestsellers. We look forward to the insights he will have to share with our graduates and their families at Commencement.”

Shaara’s novels have been praised for their attention to factual details of the historical events and eras described, as well as for the development of emotional ties between the reader and the characters.

He is the son of Michael Shaara, whose works included the Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War novel about the battle of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels. After his father’s death in 1988, Shaara took over the management of his father’s estate.

While working on the production of the film Gettysburg, based on The Killer Angels, he became friends with film director Ron Maxwell, who had been close to Michael Shaara for the many years it took to bring the book to the screen. After the critical and commercial success of Gettysburg, Maxwell approached Shaara about the possibility of finding someone to continue the story, and Shaara decided to take on the project himself.

The result was Gods and Generals, a prequel to his father’s work that went on to spend 15 weeks as a national bestseller. He followed that book in 1998 with The Last Full Measure, a sequel to The Killer Angels, and it, too, became a national bestseller.

In 2000, he published Gone for Soldiers, which described many of the Civil War characters’ experiences in the Mexican-American War of the 1840s. The next year, he published, Rise to Rebellion, the first in a two-volume story of the American Revolution as seen through the eyes of key participants. The concluding volume, The Glorious Cause, was released in 2002, and both volumes became national bestsellers.

Shaara’s most recent book, To the Last Man, published last year, is a World War I novel that has received praise from Gen. Tommy Franks, Gen. Wesley Clark and Steve Forbes, who said that it “cements his reputation as a war writer of Tolstoyan or Homeric dimensions.” Shaara is now at work on the first volume in a trilogy on World War II.

Information on the University’s spring Commencement and Convocation activities will be mailed to degree candidates and their families in late March. For additional information, visit the web site at [www.udel.edu/commencement] or contact the Office of Alumni and University Relations at (302) 831-8741 or via [AlumNet@udel.edu].

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