A Handful of Hell

ROBERT F. DORR (1939-2016) was an author (starting in 1955), an Air Force veteran (1957-60) and a retired American diplomat (1964-89). His final book was the novel CRIME SCENE: FAIRFAX COUNTY, and features characters introduced in his 2014 alternate-history novel, HITLER'S TIME MACHINE. Author of more than 70 books on military and aviation history, Dorr had served as a columnist for Air Force Times and Aerospace America. Many of his early published writings were in men's adventure magazines in the 1960s and 1970s.

"These stories were being read by men who'd been there, done that. I had to have the personalities and the details right. They wouldn't tolerate having men like themselves overly glorified, or to have war made glamorous. . . ."

Aviator, diplomat, and historian, Robert F. Dorr was uniquely qualified to write for men's adventure magazines, bringing sweat-and-blood, nuts-and-bolts authenticity to his stories of risk, combat, and sacrifice. Best known today for his highly regarded historical works, Dorr's stories for the men's pulps also drew from jaw-dropping true accounts, as action-packed as any imagined by his hard-boiled peers.


In this tense, gritty collection, the master storyteller drops readers squarely into the action's fiery crucible, both in the cockpit and on the front lines. Each story includes full-color reproductions of the explosive vintage art from the stories' original publication by some of the greatest names in illustration.

A singular collection in the author's vast bibliography, A Handful of Hell highlights the best of Robert F. Dorr's vivid, gripping tales of aerial conflict, battlefield heroism and action-some fact, some fiction, all adrenaline-fueled, white-knuckle adventure.


"Robert F. Dorr sets the standard for writing about aviation and adventure."

- Walter J. Boyne,

author and former director,

National Air and Space Museum