Larry Smith (2)

[excerpted from Overseas Press Club website]
Smith said he felt fortunate to discover the newspaper business at any early age because he was totally unsuited for anything else. His novel, The Original, was published by Herder and Herder in 1972.

He joined Parade Magazine in 1981, serving as managing editor there for 19 years. Smith has written articles for Parade on a variety of subjects, including the United States Military Academy at West Point, as well as interviews with Violetta Chamorro of Nicaragua and Carlos Salinas of Mexico. His July 4, 2000 Parade interview with nine Medal of Honor recipients led to Beyond Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own Words, published by W.W. Norton, in 2002. The book inspired his collaboration with the actor Stephen Lang, who performed the one-man show by the same name in the Laura Pels Theater of the Roundabout in New York City in June, July and August of 2007, playing to sold-out houses and highly positive reviews.

The book featured first-person accounts by six recipients from World War II, seven from Korea and 11 from Vietnam , including Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Admiral James Stockdale and former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska. It was followed by From the Sands of Iwo Jima to the Deserts of Iraq; The Few and the Proud: Marine Corps Drill Instructors in Their Own Words, a best-seller published in May of 2006 by W.W. Norton.

Smith followed that with Iwo Jima: World War Two Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific, published in 2008, which was also well received.

A sometime marathoner and mountain climber, Smith is also a member of the Explorer's Club. He has been a member of the OPC since 1981. He and his wife Dorothea live in Norwalk, Connecticut.