SHEP'S ARMY: Bummers, Blisters & Boondoggles

In the first volume of fresh Shepherd tales in 25 years, the great American humorist immortalizes the men who never tasted combat except the occasional fistfight on poker night--the soldiers on the home front.
Jean Shepherd, the great American humorist, radio raconteur, master storyteller, creator of the movie classic A Christmas Story, and bestselling author, has left his indelible imprint on American culture.
His quirky individuality was portrayed for posterity by Jason Robards in the play and film A Thousand Clowns, written by Shep's close pal Herb Gardner. Jack Nicholson embodied a Shepherdlike late night radio talker in The King of Marvin Gardens, while in Network, by Paddy Chayefsky (another of Shep's comic cohorts), the television newscaster beseeches his listeners to open their windows and yell, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more," an unmistakable echo of Shepherd's radio habit of "hurling an invective" out into the nation's airwaves.
Tens of thousands of rabid fans stayed up past their bedtimes with transistor radios stashed under their pillows to follow Shep's always unpredictable, usually extemporaneous commentaries and captivating tales.
This delightfully entertaining collection of Jean Shepherd army stories, assembled and transcribed by Shepherd biographer Eugene Bergmann, and in print for the first time, vividly captures the wit and humor of the storytelling grand master as though he were once again crooning into his WOR mike to his thousands of spellbound late-night listeners.

-- Also will be available as an E-Book --


Eugene B. Bergmann has been a Jean Shepherd enthusiast since 1956. His dedicated delving into the works of the master raconteur resulted in his landmark biography, Excelsior, You Fathead! (Applause). He lives on Long Island.