TOGETHER IN THE RARE QUILTER DUSTWRAPPER.

BARON, Alexander ~ From the City, From the Plough.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Jonathan Cape, London: 1948.

8vo., peach-coloured boards, lettered in burgundy to upper cover and spine with Cape device to foot; in the decorative blue, black and brown dustwrapper designed by F. Quilter (neatly clipped); THE BOOK very good, with slight shelf lean; a little darkened to edges of spine; small bookseller sticker to front paste-down; and contemporary ownership inscription to the ffep; a couple of marks to the fore-edge and a couple of finger marks internally, else clean; THE WRAPPER good to very good, toned and stained, particularly to the lower panel, darkened and rubbed along folds with some larger chips to spine tips and ends of folds; creasing, some scratches, and some closed tears along spine and extending into panels, the longest 5.5cm in length; but seldom found in the dustwrapper at all, and this example in unrestored condition. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. FIRST UK EDITION of this classic and popular work which focuses on a group of soldiers in the run up to D-Day. During the 1930s, Baron was a fervent campaigner for Communism and against Fascism. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, he served in the Pioneer Corps of the British Army, and was among the first Allied troops to land in Sicily, on D-Day. Between 1943-4, he also experienced first-hand the fierce and grusome fighting in the Italian campaign, Normandy and in Northern France and Belgium. After sustaining a serious head injury, he was hospitalised for over six months, and at the end of the war he published his first novel. 'From the City, from the Plough' has now become his best-known work, and tells the story of his own wartime experiences, his difficult postwar transition to civilian life, and his disillusionment with communism. The plot follows a fictional batallion in the weeks leading up to D-Day, though it is widely believed that the battalion was in fact based on units of the 43rd Wessex Division and its attacks on Hill 112 and Mont Pinçon in Normandy. Highly praised for its depiction of army life, both in and out of combat, this copy is greatly enhanced by the dustwrapper, which has been retained here, and features a striking image by F. Quilter, who also designed the dustwrapper for the first UK edition of Francoise Sagan's 'Bonjour Tristesse'.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Good +