We Were There
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The We Were There books are a series of historical novels written for children. The series consists of 36 titles, first released between 1955 and 1963 by Grosset & Dunlap. Each book in the series is a fictional retelling of an historical event, featuring one or more children as primary characters. The books were written by a number of different authors, each writing from one to seven of the books; the authors included Benjamin Appel, Jim Kjelgaard, Earl Schenck Miers, William O. Steele, and others. Each book's byline also lists a separate "historical consultant," who was ostensibly a specialist in the historic topic covered by that particular book. The historical consultants were typically college professors or, in the case of war-related stories, retired military officers; among the more noteworthy consultants for the series were the historians Bruce Catton, Walter Prescott Webb and A. B. Guthrie, Jr.. The books are illustrated with black-and-white line art, with color drawings on the dust jacket.
The dust jackets of the original printings of the books describe the series as follows:
We Were There books are easy to read and provide exciting, entertaining stories, based upon true historic events. Each story is checked for factual accuracy by an outstanding authority on this particular phase of our history. Though written simply enough for young readers, they make interesting reading for boys and girls well into their teens.
The original hardbound editions of the books were followed by several other printings, including editions for book clubs and libraries. The books were later reissued with hardbound picture covers (using the original dust jacket artwork), and softcover editions of some books became available in the 1970s. None of the books remain in print today.
[edit] List of We Were There titles
| Title | Author | Year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | We Were There on the Oregon Trail | William O. Steele | 1955 |
| 2 | We Were There at the Battle of Gettysburg | Alida Sims Malkus | 1955 |
| 3 | We Were There at the Boston Tea Party | Robert N. Webb | 1956 |
| 4 | We Were There with Byrd at the South Pole | Charles S. Strong | 1956 |
| 5 | We Were There at the Normandy Invasion | Clayton Knight | 1956 |
| 6 | We Were There in the Klondike Gold Rush | Benjamin Appel | 1956 |
| 7 | We Were There with the Mayflower Pilgrims | Robert N. Webb | 1955 |
| 8 | We Were There with the Pony Express | William O. Steele | 1956 |
| 9 | We Were There with the California Forty-Niners | Stephen Holt | 1960 |
| 10 | We Were There with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys | Robert N. Webb | 1956 |
| 11 | We Were There with Jean Lafitte at New Orleans | Iris Vinton | 1957 |
| 12 | We Were There at the Oklahoma Land Run | Jim Kjelgaard | 1957 |
| 13 | We Were There at the Battle for Bataan | Benjamin Appel | 1957 |
| 14 | We Were There on the Chisholm Trail | Ross McLaury Taylor | 1957 |
| 15 | We Were There at Pearl Harbor | Felix Sutton | 1957 |
| 16 | We Were There with Richard the Lionhearted in the Crusades | Robert N. Webb | 1957 |
| 17 | We Were There when Washington Won at Yorktown | Earl Schenck Miers | 1958 |
| 18 | We Were There at the Battle of the Alamo | Margaret Cousins | 1958 |
| 19 | We Were There at the Opening of the Erie Canal | Enid Lamonte Meadowcroft | 1958 |
| 20 | We Were There at the Battle of Lexington and Concord | Felix Sutton | 1958 |
| 21 | We Were There with Florence Nightingale in the Crimea | Robert N. Webb | 1958 |
| 22 | We Were There with Lewis and Clark | James Munves | 1959 |
| 23 | We Were There when Grant Met Lee at Appomattox | Earl Schenck Miers | 1960 |
| 24 | We Were There at the Battle of Britain | Clayton Knight and Katherine Sturgis Knight | 1959 |
| 25 | We Were There with Cortes and Montezuma | Benjamin Appel | 1959 |
| 26 | We Were There with the California Rancheros | Stephen Holt | 1960 |
| 27 | We Were There with Caeser's Legions | Robert N. Webb | 1960 |
| 28 | We Were There at the First Airplane Flight | Felix Sutton | 1960 |
| 29 | We Were There on the Santa Fe Trail | Ross McLaury Taylor | 1960 |
| 30 | We Were There with Charles Darwin on H.M.S. Beagle | Philip Eisenberg | 1960 |
| 31 | We Were There at the Driving of the Golden Spike | David Shepherd | 1960 |
| 32 | We Were There at the Opening of the Atomic Era | James Munves | 1959 |
| 33 | We Were There with the Lafayette Escadrille | Clayton Knight and Katherine Sturgis Knight | 1961 |
| 34 | We Were There at the Battle of the Bulge | David Shepherd | 1961 |
| 35 | We Were There on the Nautilus | Robert N. Webb | 1961 |
| 36 | We Were There with Lincoln in the White House | Earl Schenck Miers | 1963 |
