Illustrated biography recounts how one soldier used his art skills to survive World War II. Original maps, jungle watercolors, journal illustrations, scrapbook photos, and over 200 letters home to Leon Granacki’s extended Polish American family in Chicago reveal his longing for family, shared holidays, fishing, and a woman to love. They tell what it felt like on a very personal level to be part of a raging war in the South Pacific.
An Artist Goes
to War
Meet the Author
Victoria Ann Granacki​ is passionate about collecting and preserving old documents, odd artifacts, weird art, and vintage buildings. In her historic preservation career, she wrote scores of landmark nominations and community histories highlighting Illinois' architectural legacy, and she authored Arcadia Publishing's Chicago's Polish Downtown. Granacki has rehabbed four historic buildings in Chicago, and in retirement, she chronicles family history.