Mike Pride was a distinguished journalist, writer, and historian. For more than thirty years, he ran the newsroom of the Concord Monitor, lifting the newspaper to national prominence. He emerged from retirement to serve as administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, only to retire again when he developed a blood cancer. He wrote, co-wrote, or edited eight previous books and completed the manuscript for this book, his ninth, in the months before his death in April 2023 at the age of seventy-six. His previous books dealt most often with the human experience of war, grounded in the Civil War and World War II. Northern Voices is his most personal book, grounded instead in his love of poetry.