Jerry Burnham

Jerry Burnham is a United Press correspondent in wartime Paris whose reporting brings him into close contact with Eveline Hutchins and the Red Cross world she inhabits. He becomes her companion on meals and walks, but also a witness to the pressure censorship places on journalists and to Eveline’s attraction to the influence embodied by J. Ward Moorehouse. His story turns on the gap between the truth he wants to tell and the work he continues to do, and between his affection for Eveline and her growing interest in someone else.

Identity and Work

Burnham is introduced as a small, red-faced correspondent who helped Eveline on the first night she arrived in Paris. He works for the United Press and appears at her office every few days while covering Red Cross activities. His professional rounds become the basis for a regular personal association: he knows where to eat, takes her to the Tour d’Argent for dinner and the Taverne Nicholas Flamel for lunch, and walks with her through the old streets of the Marais before they return to work.

Those outings contrast with the private conversations that follow. Burnham chooses quiet café tables because he believes the waiters may be listening, and he drinks cognac and soda while describing the restrictions on his work. He says correspondents can no longer see events freely and are subject to several layers of censorship; instead, he has to send out prepared reports that he regards as lies. The complaint is not simply that the job is difficult. He fears that repeating what he does not believe has worn away his self-respect, and he judges journalism as degraded by the war.

Disillusionment and the Work He Wants to Do

Burnham imagines that, if the war ends, he might regain his self-respect by writing a book that tells the truth about it. Eveline encourages him to write a book in the vein of Le Feu. He doubts that the war will end soon, reasoning that too many people and institutions profit from its continuation. He points to money being made in Britain, France, and the United States, and alleges that politicians have financial interests abroad. His account links the falsification of news to a broader wartime economy: censorship limits what a correspondent can report, while profit helps keep the conflict going.

His wish to leave journalism and write returns later, after he has travelled through the Near East and the Balkans and come back from Armenia. He has accumulated stories of cholera and other calamities, but his return also brings a personal disappointment: Eveline is now spending much of her time with J. Ward Moorehouse. At lunch at the Medicis Grill, Burnham objects that Moorehouse is a publicity agent, a powerful-seeming voice rather than a substantial person. He insists that his objection is not a claim on Eveline’s affection, even as his distress makes clear how much her choice matters to him.

Eveline and Moorehouse

Burnham tells Eveline that she is the most attractive woman he has met, then accuses her of being drawn to power, whether that power takes the form of money, fame, or art. He includes himself in the criticism, acknowledging that he may deceive himself more than she does. The exchange exposes both intimacy and resentment: he speaks with the frankness of someone close to her, but his judgment also registers the pain of watching her become absorbed by Moorehouse’s status and public-facing confidence.

Eveline answers that she is fond of Burnham, but finds his complaint tiresome. She recognizes that he has seen realities she has not imagined and jokes that the Red Cross may have corrupted her. After lunch, they walk through gardens and streets, looking at theatre notices and shop windows. Eveline says she will skip work and pretend to be ill; Burnham joins her in playing hooky. He buys her violets and orders cognac and seltzer. The ease of this afternoon does not resolve their differences. Burnham still contemplates abandoning his job and going to Spain to write, while Eveline says she does not want to return to America after the war.

Longing, Departure, and Narrative Role

Burnham’s affection persists in gestures that are at once hopeful and awkward. When Eveline prepares to leave Paris with Eleanor Stoddard for a few days in Nice, he arrives at the Gare de Lyon visibly intoxicated and carrying a large bouquet of roses. He jokes that the weather in Nice may be cold enough for skating, while Eleanor corrects his destination-based confusion by naming St. Moritz. The exchange lets his arrival bring levity into a departure scene already charged with tension: Paul Johnson is present, nervous and gloomy, and Mr. Rasmussen has also come to see Eveline off.

Burnham has forgotten to buy a ticket, so he cannot go out onto the platform with the others. As the party leaves him behind, he is still arguing with railway officials and searching his pockets for his press card. The press credential, which represents his professional identity, does not get him onto the train or alter the separation. His final appearance in these episodes echoes his larger predicament: he has access to stories, movement, and intimate conversation, yet remains unable to make his work truthful or his affection reciprocal. Through him, wartime censorship and personal disillusionment meet in the figure of a journalist who wants to leave his compromised profession but has not yet done so.