The Importance Of Books

In June, Coram spoke to the McBees, a library support group, in Darien, Georgia. To see the text of his speech, click here

BRUTE Tour Ends in Charleston

In March, Coram spoke to several hundred retired Marines in Charleston, SC. These "Low Country Leathernecks"were an engaged audience and stood in long lines to buy copies of BRUTE.
Coram also spoke to ROTC cadets at the Citadel, stalwart young men and women who will be the Marine leaders of tomorrow. If they internalize what they learn by reading the life story of Brute Krulak, they will be well prepared for their careers.

A Double Shot in The Wall Street Journal

It is a rare event when The Wall Street Journal both reviews a book and then invites the author to write a "Five Best" column. (The "Five Best" is a column discussing what the writer believes are the five best books on a given topic.). WSJ staffers call this a "Double Shot" and reserve the honor for books considered especially noteworthy. Double shots only occur two or three times a year. The Wall Street Journal reviewed BRUTE on November 13, 2010; Coram's "Five Best" column, which featured books on unsung war heroes, ran on February 19, 2011.

BRUTE Book Tour

Coram opened his tour with a pre-publication party hosted by John and Bunny Underwood at their home on Harris Neck, an island off the Georgia coast. From there it was on to Atlanta and the Marcus Jewish Community Center where the crowd was SRO. Then to Quantico where Coram spoke to the Command and Staff College and to the Expeditionary Warfare School. Along with retired general Charles Krulak, 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps, he was a guest of the Quatrefoil Society at the fabled Globe & Laurel Restaurant. A few days later he spoke and had a signing at Camp Lejeune.
Response was such that a month after publication, Little, Brown and Company declared BRUTE a "HOT TITLE" and sent the book into a second printing.

Pub Date for BRUTE

November 10, 2010, the 235th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, is the publication date for BRUTE.

BRUTE Manuscript Finished

In late 2009, Coram finished BRUTE, the biography of LtGen Victor “Brute” Krulak, and sent the manuscript to his publisher in New York. Tentative pub date is late 2010.

Once the precise date is known, it will be added here.

A Legendary Marine Dies

Retired Marine Lieutenant General Victor “Brute” Krulak, the subject of Coram’s next book, died in late December, 2008 and was buried in January.

The Brute’s younger son, General Charles Krulak, former Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, asked Coram to deliver the eulogy.

It was Coram’s great honor to do so.

To read the eulogy, please click here.

The Wild Blue Yonder

In early 2009 the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, a wise and perspicacious officer, chose AMERICAN PATRIOT: THE LIFE AND WARS OF COLONEL BUD DAY as the lead title for his reading list of professionally relevant books.

The Air Force has more than 300,000 people on active duty and many of them are following the Chief’s suggestion, causing a noticeable increase in sales.

Thank you, General Schwartz!

Coram was interviewed by business guru Tom Peters in February, 2006. The interview was wide-ranging but focused on BOYD. Complete text of the "Cool Friends Interview" can be found at www.tompeters.com.

BOYD continues to sell. Now it has done what the publisher hoped and moved beyond the military community to the civilian world.

BOYD, along with Certain To Win, a book about how Boyd’s ideas are relevant in the business world, by Dr. Chet Richards, is being studied in business schools around the country.

Coram receives e-mails every week about the book; intense, even passionate e-mails from people who say they have been profoundly affected by John Boyd’s life and work.

The book is being taught at the Air Force Academy and has made deep inroads in the officer corps of the Air Force, primarily in the ranks of captains, majors and lieutenant colonels. These officers say they are aware of why senior Air Force leadership continues to denigrate Boyd’s accomplishments. They say that a few years from now, some of them will be among a new generation of leadership and they will see that Boyd receives the institutional recognition so long overdue from the Air Force.

But it is the Marine Corps that keeps the book moving; not only the ground side of the Corps but the pilots. The book is a top seller at various Marine Corps bases. The Executive Officer of one F-18 wing estimates that at least 60% of the pilots in the wing have read the book; an amazing number when one considers how few Marines can read at all.

On May 27, 2003 Coram published an Op-Ed column in The New York Times about Air Force plans to send the A-10 Warthog to the boneyard. The piece was titled, “The Hog That Saves the Grunts.” The column generated widespread coverage from various defense publications as well as a spirited rebuttal from the Air Force.

Now the Air Force is on record as saying it has no plans to kill the A-10.

The story of how the A-10 was designed by Pierre Sprey, one of John Boyd’s closest associates, is told in BOYD.