The navigator who survived a North Sea crash to become a literary icon

Countries & Cities · Published 14 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: From flying heavy bombers over Germany to the typing pools of advertising agencies, Edward Field’s life was a series of dramatic shifts. A survivor of a crippled B-17, he transformed wartime trauma into a celebrated career as a poet, novelist, and essential voice in American gay writing.

Edward Field’s life was marked by profound survival and reinvention. Born in Brooklyn in 1924, Field grew up in New York, playing cello in the Field Family Trio on radio station WGBB. During World War II, he served as a navigator with the Eighth Air Force. In February 1945, during a raid on Berlin, his B-17 was struck by flak and forced to crash-land in the North Sea. While ten crew members reached life rafts, only seven survived; Field owed his life to ball turret gunner Jack Cook, who surrendered his place on the raft to him.

Following the war, Field transitioned from military service to a diverse array of roles, including machinist, clerk-typist, and even studying acting under Russian émigré Vera Soloviova. He applied theatrical techniques to the public reading of poetry, a practice that sustained him financially throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His literary debut, 'Stand Up, Friend, with Me' (1963), earned the 1962 Lamont Poetry Selection and received high praise from figures like William Carlos Williams.

Field’s creative output extended far beyond verse. He wrote the narration for the 1965 Academy Award-winning documentary 'To Be Alive!' and collaborated with Neil Derrick on novels under the pseudonym Bruce Elliot. Their historical novel, 'Village', became a bestseller. Alongside Derrick, Field lived in the Westbeth Artists Community in New York's West Village for decades. By the time of his death in 2026 at age 102, he was recognized as an irreplaceable figure in the history of gay American writing.

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