I wrote an essay about Cap and my experience transcribing his journal. It can be found here.

A brief passage:

“I sat on the journal for a few months, unable to shake the feeling that I needed to do something with it. I didn’t want to hand it over to a museum or the National Archives or anything like that. This was a family emblem first, historical document second. I decided that, at the very least, it needed to be transcribed.

“So, over the next several months, I took to rewriting the journal, word for word, in my free time. I read once about how Hunter S. Thompson used to transcribe the words of his literary heroes—people like Fitzgerald and Hemmingway—believing the experience would vicariously empower him with the wisdom of great writers. Cap was no Fitzgerald, but the experience of transcribing his words was eerie, to say the least—sort of like forcing your hand into a glove that doesn’t fit, and then realizing the glove belonged to a war hero.”

Read the rest here.