University of Arkansas Press Publishes Dearest Letty

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Dearest Lettie, edited by Ernie Dumas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Press has published Dearest Letty: The World War II Love Letters of Sgt. Leland Duvall ($29.95, cloth), edited by Ernie Dumas. The book is a collection of love letters written by Leland Duvall to his sweetheart, Letty Jones, who lived near Pottsville.

Duvall, who went on to become a well-known journalist in Arkansas after the war, was a now-and-again farm worker with a grade-school education when he received his World War II draft notice at his father’s farm near Moreland in March 1942. He departed for training in California, where he began to write to Letty Jones, a Pottsville girl he’d had a crush on for several years. From the first correspondence through the end of the war, Leland wrote Letty a torrent of letters, falling in love with her, and with writing.

The letters, discovered after his death, were organized and edited by Duvall’s longtime friend and colleague, Ernie Dumas, who provides facts about where Duvall was and the perils he endured, information that was often missing due to wartime censors and Duvall’s concerns over worrying or boring Letty.

William Whitworth, editor emeritus of The Atlantic Monthly, praises the book. “In these funny, touching love letters from Leland Duvall to his wife-to-be, we meet the future brilliant explainer of everything from Arkansas agriculture to international economics when he was still a young country boy educating himself, teaching himself to write, and, in his spare time, casually becoming a hero in World War II.”

 “The beautiful and poignant wartime letters of Leland Duvall are utterly fascinating,” said former U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers. “They are all the more remarkable for their serenity, for the daunting conditions under which they were written, and for Duvall’s meager preparation — an eighth-grade education and a life of hardscrabble farm labor.”

Leland Duvall was a member of the 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron from 1942 to 1945. After the war, he pursued a career in journalism and wrote for several Arkansas newspapers, including the Arkansas Gazette. Duvall died in 2006, and his widow Letty lives in Russellville.

Ernie Dumas is a columnist for the Arkansas Times and former associate editor and reporter for the Arkansas Gazette. He is the editor of The Clintons of Arkansas and coauthor with Tom Glaze of Waiting for the Cemetery Vote. Dumas will be reading and signing copies of Dearest Letty on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at Barnhill’s Restaurant in Jonesboro at noon and the Edge Coffee House in Jonesboro at 4 p.m. On Dec. 3 he’ll be at Wildflower Senior Living Community Center in Russellville at 2 p.m., along with Letty Duvall, and on Dec. 8 he’ll be at the University of Arkansas Global Campus in Fayetteville at 11 a.m. and at Trolley Line books in Rogers at 3 p.m. For more information on these events, visit www.uapress.com.