About the Author


 James W. Morrison

       James W. Morrison is retired from a career of 30 years in the Department of Defense, including three years as a U.S. Army officer and nearly 27 years as a civilian executive in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he worked on international affairs. He is a graduate of Indiana and Columbia Universities and the National War College.

       Jim is a writer of history and politics, essays, fiction, drama, and poetry. He had two books on international relations published while serving as a visiting fellow at the National Defense University in the early 1990s.

       Writing in retirement, his historical drama, Bedford Goes to War, won first place in 1999 in a Sedalia Center contest. The drama has been performed on stage in Bedford eight times over the years, one year raising more than $8,000 for the National D-Day Memorial.  

       His 2004 history, Bedford Goes to War: The Heroic Story of a Small Virginia Community in World War II, was nominated for the Library of Virginia Literary Awards and was selected as one of five finalists for the nonfiction People’s Choice Award in 2005. The book is in its third edition.

       In 2013, he had essays, drama, and poetry published in Voices from the Lake, published by the Smith Mountain Arts Council.

       In 2014, he published his first novel, Class of 1940: Coming of Age in World War II.

       Jim is a past president of the nearly century old, statewide, Virginia Writers Club, its Roanoke Valley Writers chapter, and the Lake Writers at Smith Mountain Lake. He remains active in all three organizations.

       He has served as a volunteer guide at the National D-Day Memorial. He serves on the boards of the Franklin County Library and its Foundation and heads the capital campaign for the Westlake Branch Library. He is a member of Bedford’s American Legion Post 54 and is a graduate of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Citizen Academy. He and his wife, Edie, live at Smith Mountain Lake, where they are active in their church and other activities. They have two grown children and two grandchildren.


              Published or Performed Works by the Author


  • Vladimir Zhirinovskiy: An Assessment of a Russian Ultranationalist (1994, National Defense University Press)

  • NATO Expansion and Alternative Future Security Alignments (1995, National Defense University Press)

  • “Europe” (with Jeffrey Simon and Charles Barry) in Strategic Assessment 1995 (1995, INSS/National Defense University Press)

  • Bedford Goes to War (2000, a historical drama)

  • Bedford Goes to War: The Heroic Story of a Small Virginia Community in World War II (history, first edition 2004, second edition 2006, third edition 2013)

  • “Bedford County and D-Day” in Bedford Images, Vol. 2, Celebrating 250 Years of History (history, 2004, Bedford Museum)

  • Poems, Essays, and Drama in Voices from Smith Mountain Lake (2013, anthology published by the Smith Mountain Arts Council)

  • Class of 1940: Coming of Age in World War II (historical novel, 2014)