BATH

It took Bath resident and critically acclaimed author Richard Rubin months to find just one living American veteran of World War I.

But then he found another. And another.

Eventually, he managed to find dozens, aged 101 to 113, and interviewed them.

All are gone now.

A decade-long odyssey to recover the story of a forgotten generation and their Great War led Rubin across the United States and France, through archives, private collections, battlefields, literature, propaganda and even music. But at the center of it all were the last of the last, the men and women he met: a new immigrant, drafted and sent to France, whose life was saved by a horse; a Connecticut Yankee who volunteered and fought in every major American battle; a Cajun artilleryman nearly killed by a German aeroplane; an 18-year-old Bronx girl “drafted” to work for the War Department; the 16-year-old who became America’s last World War I veteran; and many, many more.

Rubin will talk about the product of his research, the just- released book, “ The Last of the Doughboys,” at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 25, at Patten Free Library.

Bath Book Shop will handle sales at the event; Rubin will sign copies after his presentation.