(I’m changing my schedule from M-W-F to Tu-Th-Sat, so Wednesday Miscellany is now Thursday Miscellany.)
This story was a submission to a contest in St. Nicholas magazine. Even if you don’t read it as an allegory of a doomed WWI soldier–and it’s hard not to–it seems way too good to have been written by an eight-year-old. I Googled Edgar Pangborn, and it turns out that he went on to become a science fiction writer who was one of the founders of the “humanist” school and served as an inspiration to Ursula Le Guin.*
St. Nicholas magazine, April 1918
Oh, how sweet! My boyfriend killed someone!
Ladies’ Home Journal, April 1918
In case you thought, like I did, that Don Draper made up “It’s toasted” in 1960.
Judge magazine, March 2, 1918
And finally, a harlequin and a ballerina on Rita Senger’s April 1918 Vanity Fair cover.
*He’s going to be hard to top as the youngest person I run across in My Year in 1918 who will go on to later fame.
My Life 100 Years Ago 
Edgar Pangborn, not Edward. An author I read in high school or earlier and keep meaning to re-read, especially Davy. Largely forgotten now, I believe, as only someone way ahead of his time can be.
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Yikes, I hate errors! Thanks for the correction. I did get it right on (uncorrectable) Twitter, fortunately. That’s amazing that you’ve actually read Pangborn. I’m glad he lived up to his eight-year-old potential.
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