Howard Bahr

Howard Bahr, an American novelist, returns repeatedly in his fiction to the Civil War, its veterans, and the memories that survive combat. The Judas Field: A Novel of the Civil War, published by Henry Holt in 2006, follows Cass Wakefield and companions who travel from Mississippi to Tennessee in 1885 to recover the remains of two men lost at the Battle of Franklin. Picador issued a trade paperback edition the following year, 2007. Their journey brings past experience into the present through recollection, grief, and the difficult obligations carried by survivors. The novel received the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and revisits terrain Bahr had explored in The Black Flower. Before writing these novels, Bahr served in the United States Navy, worked on railroads, and spent years as curator of William Faulkner's home, Rowan Oak. The Judas Field reflects that sustained attention to Southern place and historical memory, treating the battlefield not simply as a setting but as a force still shaping lives two decades later.