Dear Hubby of Mine - Abridged by Diane Phelps Budden (Paperback)

About the Book

The 75th anniversary of the end of World War II will be celebrated in 2020. Touching letters exchanged by an immigrant home front housewife and her battlefront sailor husband portray the anguish couples suffer during wartime separations, while depicting the country in the 1940s under conditions that would come to change America's culture.

Book Synopsis

Touching letters written by a loving couple; musty letters that detail past lives--my parents' letters. A housewife and her sailor husband with shared immigrant experiences penned more than 500 letters during World War II, and the letters inform this book. Abridged versions of the letters weave a loving romantic story with actual events occurring on the home front and the battlefront. The letters are further brought to life through the 25 original family photographs and remembrances from the period.

The 75^th anniversary of the end of World War II will be celebrated in 2020. Most of the participants have passed on. While servicemen's stories have been broadly told, the tales of the resolute war wives, who had a significant impact on the outcome of the war and the well-being of the country, have not been widely shared. While some women joined the military, and others entered the workforce for the first time, the majority stayed at home to raise children. Dear Hubby of Mine focuses on this latter group of women whose stories have been under-represented and largely uncelebrated in World War II literature.

In addition, my parents' immigrant backgrounds formed in the Hungarian community in Cleveland, Ohio, sheds light on the experiences of other minority groups and refugees that came before and after them.

While many readers may see the story as a touching romance, and it is, others may appreciate the depiction of the country in the 1940s under wartime conditions and how that influenced America's culture in the decades to come. Women charted new roles during the war that led to new freedoms in the 1960s and eventually brought about major societal changes.

Review Quotes

"Dear Hubby of Mine: Home Front Wives in World War II is a true story based on loving letters between Diane Phelps Budden's parents during the war...Under Budden's hand, her parents' experiences and love comes to life with hard-earned lessons for others who may be struggling with separation, social change, and the demands of being war wives and husbands committed to both country and each other. Dear Hubby of Mine is not just the story of one husband and wife. It's a snapshot of the experiences of a nation under siege on the battlefields of social change. No World War II, feminist, or social history collection should be without this vibrant, enlightening survey that seamlessly puts the personal touch back into social, political, and military issues.

It should also be noted that while the 75^th anniversary of the end of World War II will be celebrated in 2020, most participants of that era have since passed, making works like these letters some of the only eyewitness legacies of the times--and thus making their publication and discussion even more important."

--D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review