Ohrvel’s World War II Sketch Book

There is a saying that everyone has a book in them. These days it seems a lot of people are determined to write that book. This is a good thing, I think, but it has certainly changed the publishing world - it remains to be seen if that is for the good or not.

When Sven Ohrvel Carlson was a little boy he lived in New Jersey. He liked to draw. His father often took him in to work with him and Ohrvel would spend his time making sketches of the people and the things he saw there. It was the beginning of a habit he has kept throughout his life.

One day he drew a portrait of the man his father worked for. His father’s employer was so impressed he signed the drawing for the young artist. Ohrvel still has that drawing framed and hanging in his studio. It reads “To Ohrvel from Thomas Alva Edison” and hangs above the great inventor’s upright piano. For Ohrvel it was the beginning of a remarkable life.

As a young man he longed to travel but it was the Depression and he lacked the means. So he stowed away on a ship bound for the Orient and, after scrubbing decks and washing dishes, he wandered through Asia filling sketch books. He returned to America as World War II began and enlisted. He was at the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest, and at Normandy - he filled sketch book after sketchbook - over 260 sketches in all. Wonderful drawings of the faces of soldiers, of people dancing and drinking in USOs, and of trucks and tanks rolling onto battlefields and of soldiers being carried off of them. His drawings are living history as no one else could show it. He and his pen were there and he captured everything he saw.

Today Ohrvel is 94 years old. He lives in Rockport, Massachusetts with his wife Carol and daughter Laurie. They run a small bed and breakfast and Ohrvel keeps a busy schedule. Ohrvel plays the violin, accompanied by a friend on cello, in area nursing homes several times a week. He continues to paint and wins awards at the art association exhibitions he participates in, he is working on his memoirs. And he has made a book of his war sketches.

Ohrvel walks with a cane now - two outside of his house. But he takes a walk every day. When I talk to him on the phone I think I am talking to a man half his age. His voice is deep and light, his thoughts come quickly, he laughs easily. He takes a nap when he needs one but he is a busy man.

His book is a collection of the sketches he made during World War II. They have been scanned and reproduced and collected into a spiral bound book that he and Carol sell for $20 to anyone who calls asking for one. It is a book deserving of a much more distinguished format and far wider distribution.

To me it seems a sad commentary on the publishing industry that a book containing these remarkable pieces of history should be so humble in appearance and distribution. I spoke with Carol yesterday and she said they received a call from Senator John Kerry’s office expressing interest in the book. I offered to help reformat it. We are going to meet to discuss ideas.

Sven Ohrvel Carlson is an amazing man who has lived an amazing life. His World War II Sketchbook is a fascinating representation of just one part of it. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping to bring it to a wider audience. It certainly deserves it.

Thanks for reading.