Chances are you haven't heard the name Dickey Chapelle. I hadn't before reading this book. Dickey was a woman war correspondent who did just about everything first. Her focus was telling the stories of the oppressed and forgotten. Her radical style of reporting is highlighted in a new book, FIRST TO THE FRONT ((StMartinsPress) by Lorissa Rinehart.

She was a groundbreaking photojournalist who focused on the dangerous stories her male colleagues wouldn't touch, beginning at WWII, surviving torture in a communist prison, marching down the Ho Chi Minh Trail with South Vietnamese, ultimately being the first American woman killed in combat, while on assignment marching side by side with the Marines in 1965.

Her story is one that must be told. Readers will be ripping through Rinehart's book until the very last page. Dickey faced discrimination on the battlefield and at home reporting her stories by any means necessary.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Michener recalled, "I was cautious, she was totally fearless. I would draw back from spots of danger, she would always crowd forward. ... If she were a man, they would have called her a hero."

I feel fortunate having read FIRST TO THE FRONT and made aware of Dickey Chappelle. I believe readers will have a similar experience.

biographical-novel, correspondent, documentary, documented, emotional-abuse, gaslighting, misogynistic-era, photojournalist, read, reporter, research, torture, unputdownable, US Marines, war, war-crimes, war-experiences, War is Hell*****

Intrepid, unrelenting, betrayed by her husband and herself (not to mention a certain ranking officer after the battle of Okinawa).
From the early days of WW2 and on through Viet Nam she covered very closely the people that mattered to war as well as recovery efforts. Misogyny was rampant everywhere except with the troops of the US Marines. She began with the war in the Pacific, moved on into post war Europe, into the effects of the Cold War in Europe, into Korea, and ending in Viet Nam.
One storyteller gives a clear and affecting posthumous voice to another.
I feel ashamed as a woman from the Milwaukee area and one who was out of high school by the time she died that I have NEVER even heard of this iconoclastic woman.
Her goal became "when I die I want to be on patrol with the (US) Marines". At 47 (11/04/1965), in Viet Nam, she did.
I requested and received an EARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

What a remarkable woman! Dickey Chapelle was a force as she captured the stories of many conflicts over multiple decades as a photojournalist. As a young woman just starting out, she had no fear as she joined battalions of soldiers as they trekked through mud, bug infested swamps, and horrors of war to capture the stories and bring them to the readers back home. She seemed to have the ability to slip into any situation, many times with men only, on ships, in foxholes, on airplanes. She also had an uncanny way to see a story and get to the heart of it and translate it to the readers in a deeply emotional way. She showed no fear among these soldiers, hospital workers, sailors as well as civilians in war ravaged countries. And she grew into her own as she worked, finding new angles and new perspectives to highlight her messages. But the one person she did not stand up to was her husband Tony, who was a misogynist, abuser, alcoholic and gambler. Their marriage seemed doomed from the start though she stayed married to him for 15 years, much of it though she was away from him on assignment in a war torn country. Dickey was a trailblazer, going where no woman had ever gone before and whenever asked where she wanted to go her standard reply was "As far as you will let me go!"
While I found her story fascinating, I did get a little bored with the detail of each of her assignments. Whenever the story wound back around to the volatile moments with Tony, I got back into it again as the drama kept my attention better. The writing is very good and gives the reader a good sense of what Dickey was thinking, what she saw and felt as she made her pictures. There is also an interesting perspective of each of the conflicts she covered around the world over the decades through the conversations she had with civilians she came into contact with as well.

When I die I want to be on patrol with the Marines.

Dickey Chapelle quoted in First to the Front by Lorissa Rinhart
You know that Dickey Chapelle was remarkable when you see her, holding her camera, dressed in fatigues and sporting fashionable cats-eye glasses, and wearing pearl earrings.

She documented the after affects of war and she went to the front lines. She was fearless and stayed in an abusive relationship for fifteen years. She survived weeks in isolation in a Soviet prison. She championed freedom fighters in Hungary, Algeria, and Cuba. She was patriotic and hated Communism, and loved the Marines, and she was appalled at CIA abuses and America’s misguided wars. Her articles appeared in the country’s foremost magazines and the military considered her an expert on guerilla warfare. As a reporter, she kept up with the soldiers and gained their respect.

And yet she has been nearly forgotten.

Did I truly think I could, with the tool of the camera around my neck, help end the need for the tool of the carbine on my shoulder?

Dickey Chapelle quoted in First to the Front by Lorissa Rinehart
First to the Front is Dickey’s remarkable story of her life as a photojournalist. She covered the war in the Pacific, documenting the use of blood to raise awareness of the importance of blood drives to soldiers and the war effort. She documented the European civilian casualties of war and concentration camp survivors. She saw the fight against locusts in Iraq and in Iran notied the failure of aid efforts to make an impact. In India, she documented the impact of American tractors on farming.

Dickey reported on the Hungarian Revolution, where she was arrested and imprisoned. She recommitted her battle against totalitarianism and went to Algeria which was fighting for independence from the French and to Cuba where Castro was fighting the despot Batista.

Then, she went to Laos where the CIA and the military were “laying the groundwork for a much larger conflict”–what became the Vietnam war, where Dickey ultimately lost her life.

Dickey’s reporting had a slant–the human element. She cared. She cared about the soldiers and she cared about the victims of war. She championed social justice and human rights. She loved her country but was willing to see it’s faults, the promise and how it had not achieved the promise.

I was completely enthralled by this biography.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

Fascinating biography of photojournalist Dickey Chapelle. Her documentation of conflicts from WWI through the Vietnam War and the impact on the military and civilians is eye opening. A strong woman willing to do whatever it took to keep up with troops.
After reading the book, I don't understand why her story is not more widely known.
 #FirsttotheFront #NetGalley

May 3, 2023
What a spectacular AND certainly missing account (till now) of the first woman war correspondent/photographer. Covering Chappelle's entire story through incredible research, Rinehart delineates what it took to be the first to the front and the price she paid. Chappelle's experiences gave her insight into what really mattered in wartime from the Hungarian Uprising to Vietnam. How have we not heard more about this woman ?
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

Why is Dickey Chapelle not center-stage when we celebrate Women's history? How do we not know her story? Lorissa Rinehart's new biography of Dickey Chapelle, First to the Front, tells the compelling, lost to history story of Georgette Meyer Chapelle from Milwaukee, WI. Where she goes from there is extraordinary. Dickey travelled the world as a war correspondent, photojournalist and advocate for those who fought and those who's worlds were shattered by war.
Dickey's own fighting spirit shines through on these pages. Rinehart takes us on Dickey's journey as if we were in the jeep, on the ship or comforting a wounded marine in a freezing cargo plane with her. The extensive use of Dickey Chapelle's archive shines through on these pages. Dickey's own descriptive writing shared in First to Front had me searching online for her own autobiography which sadly is no longer in print. Lorissa Rinehart has given us, as Nanci Griffith once sang, a Pearl's Eye View of a wayshower to anyone who wants to make their own path in this world and hold on to their kindness and integrity.

First to the Front by Lorissa Rinehart was a very interesting and honestly a fascinating biography.
A true and utterly brilliant biography of pioneering photojournalist Dickey Chapelle, who from World War II through the early days of Vietnam got her story as one of the first female war correspondents.
I love reading biographies, and I really enjoyed this one!
There's a lot great history here that I didn't know about.
Rinehart does a great job at this amazing storytelling.
This book is so interesting, and the story goes along quickly.
The excellent writing, content and subject matter I had a hard time putting this book down.
The quality of the research and writing was expertly done and I truly enjoyed this piece.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I have a thurst for information on the Vietnam War and have for a long while and I have always been interested in the photographers and journalists. I highly enjoyed this and found some of the details to be on point of what I know. I think this book is wonderful and it this does justice to her memory and legacy.
I just reviewed First to the Front by Lorissa Rinehart. #FirstToTheFront #NetGalley
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I really enjoyed getting to learn about someone I didn't know. Lorissa Rinehart has a great style when telling the story and it worked as a biography. I enjoyed getting to know Dickey Chapelle through this book, and it was a great tribute to them.