How to Revise a True War Story: Tim O’Brien’s Process of Textual Production

Placeholder author icon
By John K. Young ’90

Published May 31, 2017

Drawing on an extensive study of drafts and other prepublication materials, as well as the multiple published versions of Tim O’Brien’s works, John K. Young ’90 tells the stories behind the production of some of O’Brien’s most famous texts. How to Revise a True War Story (University of Iowa Press) analyzes how O’Brien’s series of texts refuse to settle into a finished or stable form, just as the stories they present insist on being told and retold in new and changing ways.

Paw in print

Image
The cover of PAW’s November 2025 issue, featuring a photo of a space probe and the headline "Made in Princeton."
The Latest Issue

November 2025

NASA’s new IMAP mission, London’s big data detective, AI challenges in the classroom.