To Hell and Back

Audie Murphy grew up on a sharecropper's farm in Hunt County, Texas, in a family of eleven children who were deserted by their father. He was sixteen when his mother died and his brothers and sisters were sent to an orphanage or to relatives. When World War II broke out, he joined the infantry. By the war's end, Murphy had become the nation's most decorated soldier with twenty-eight medals, including three from France and one from Belgium. After he returned to a hero's welcome in the United States, he was persuaded by actor James Cagney to embark on an acting career, and he made more than forty films. In 1971, at the age of 46, he died in the crash of a private plane near Roanoke, Virginia. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Grover Gardner has recorded more than 650 audiobooks since beginning his career in 1981.  He's been named one of the "Best Voices of the Century" as well as a "Golden Voice" by AudioFile magazine.  Gardner has garnered over 20 AudioFile Earphones Awards and is the recipient of an Audio Publishers Association Audie Award, as well as a three-time finalist.  In 2005, Publishers Weekly deemed him "Audiobook Narrator of the Year."

Gardner has also narrated hundreds of audiobooks under the names Tom Parker and Alexander Adams.  Among his many titles are Marcus Sakey's At the City's Edge, as well as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and John Irving's The Cider House Rules.  Gardner studied Theater and Art History at Rollins College and received a Master's degree in Acting from George Washington University.  He lives in Oregon with his significant other and daughter.