--- title: The Things They Carried: See An Original Mansucript Page description: The classic book turned 25 this year canonical: https://time.com/4118713/things-they-carried-manuscript/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-18T21:00:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:54.540Z article:section: History og:title: See an Original Manuscript Page From 'The Things They Carried' og:description: The classic book turned 25 this year og:url: https://time.com/4118713/things-they-carried-manuscript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See an Original Manuscript Page From 'The Things They Carried' twitter:description: The classic book turned 25 this year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # See a Manuscript Page From _The Things They Carried_—With the Author's Edits by [Alicia Dietrich / Harry Ransom Center](https://time.com/author/harry-ransom-center/) ## Alicia Dietrich / Harry Ransom Center Nov 18, 2015 9:00 PM UTC by [Alicia Dietrich / Harry Ransom Center](https://time.com/author/harry-ransom-center/) ## Alicia Dietrich / Harry Ransom Center Nov 18, 2015 9:00 PM UTC  _This post is in partnership with the_ [_Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin_](http://www.hrc.utexas.edu)_. A version of the article below was originally published on the_ [_Ransom Center’s Cultural Compass blog._ ](http://budurl.com/n7h8) This year marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of Tim O’Brien’s _The Things They Carried_, a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The book depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of 43.  Manuscript page from "Stockings" chapter of The Things They Carried, hand-corrected by Tim O'Brien Harry Ransom Center The Ransom Center [acquired the archive](http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2007/obrien.html) of the National Book Award–winning writer in 2007, and a [finding aid](http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00469.xml) for the collection is available online. Also, [read](http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/reflect/2008/obrien/) what O’Brien has to say about his papers residing at the Ransom Center. O’Brien received the 1979 National Book Award in fiction for _Going After Cacciato_. His other works include the novel _July, July_ and _In the Lake of the Woods_, which received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was named the best novel of 1994 by TIME. O’Brien lives in Austin, Texas. **_Read more about O’Brien and see more from the archives_**[ **_here,_**](http://budurl.com/n7h8) **_at the Harry Ransom Center Cultural Compass blog._** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4118713/things-they-carried-manuscript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4118713/things-they-carried-manuscript/"},"headline":"See a Manuscript Page From The Things They Carried—With the Author's Edits","datePublished":"2015-11-18T21:00:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:54.540Z","description":"The classic book turned 25 this year","url":"https://time.com/4118713/things-they-carried-manuscript/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alicia Dietrich / Harry Ransom Center"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4118713/things-they-carried-manuscript/","name":"See a Manuscript Page From The Things They Carried—With the Author's Edits"}}]}] ```