Great War Dust Jackets

Commander Lawless V C Hodder 1916 Stirring Naval Stories

Retreat by C R Benstead UK & US editions. Methuen 1930 & Century 1930 (from Babylon Revisited) Novel of a rather weak-willed Padre at the front.

The Valiant Heart by George Blake Collins 1940 Novel. Scotland & the Western Front

Edmund Blunden Sidgwick 1920,  the rest Cobden - Sanderson. 1928 1st, 1930 revised ed, 1930 3rd ed. (from Nick Fletcher). It was while scanning these Blundens in that I started to doubt the wisdom of this whole undertaking - they are so dull! It was only with the revised edition that his publishers made any concession to the times they were in.

These are just a few of my many identical Blunden’s. The Bonadventure is about his Atlantic crossing and nothing to do with the war, but it’s inscribed by Blunden to Edward Marsh so I thought I’d slip it in anyway.

The Path of Glory by George Blake Constable 1929 & Harper Bros 1929 (from Andre Strong Bookseller). Novel. Two Scotsmen at Gallipoli

 

The Advance from Mons by Walter Bloem Davies 1930 from the Soldiers Tales series

A Fatalist at War by Rudolph Binding Allen & Unwin 1929. Diaries of the German Poet & Novelist from 1914 to ADC on the staff in 1916.

Soldiering for Cross & Flag by Celestine Bittle Bruce 1929. War Chaplain at the front (from JRF)

Legion of Marching Madmen by W J Blackledge Sampson Low 1936. First-hand account by a ranker of the ill-fated Tigris Expedition in Mesopotamia under General Townshend. Jacket by Warren.

Falklands, Jutland & the Bight by Barry Bingham John Murray 1919. 2nd imp. Won the VC at Jutland

Peninsula of Death by W J Blackledge Sampson Low 1936. An Australian account of the Gallipoli campaign

(from Paul)

Hodder 1914 (by Mary Frances Billington). An early look at the nursing services from a prominent suffragette (available from John Marrin)

Dawn by Reginald Berkeley Collins 1928 & Sears 1928. Novelised by Berkeley from his play & film script. The life of Edith Cavell played in the silent film by Sybil Thorndike (from Between the Covers)

Clancy by William Bird Graphic. Ottawa 1930. Humorous stories of Private Clancy at the Front

The Royal Flying Corps in the War by W T Blake  Cassell 1918. Jacket by G. H. Davis.Major Blake’s experiences over the Western Front & the Middle East 1915-1917.

 

I Met a Man by Michael Blankfort Bobbs-Merrill 1937 Spy novel set behind German lines. A powerful & suspenseful book.

Winged Warfare by W A Bishop Hodder 1918 above & Doran 1918 below. Flying memoir with RFC 21st, 60th & 85th Sq.. (both from David & Helen Pritchard)

The Roll-Call of Serving Women by Mary Francis Billington RTS 1915. Another from the suffragette author & a fine account.

For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon Hodder & Stoughton 1917. 3 poems taken from ‘The Winnowing Fan’ with several atmospheric illustrations which are sadly uncredited. A damaged but scarce survivor.

With our Army in Palestine by Antony Bluett Melrose 1919. With ‘A’ Battery, HAC & the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps. A vivid account.

The Victory of Lorraine by Adrien Bertrand Nelson 1918. The author describes the build up to the Battle of the Marne where he was wounded and subsequently died (from John Marrin)

The Communication Trench by Will Bird Priv. Pr. 1933. Stories from the front. The author served with the 42nd Batt., Black Watch of Canada at Vimy.

An Aviator’s Field Book Deutschland(later Military Pub) 1917 (from David & Helen Pritchard)

The Outbreak of War by E F Benson Peter Davies 1933. His diary of events leading up to the War

(from Roger Joye)

Kilts across the Jordan by Bernard Blaser Witherby 1926. With the London Scottish in Palestine (from the Vergette-Whitehorn collection)

The Secret of the Marne by Marcel Berger Putnam 1918 Novel about a French Sergeant at the Battle of the Marne (from Babylon Revisited)

Knight of Germany by Oswald Boelcke Hamilton 1933. A memoir of the German air ace (from David & Helen Pritchard)

Allen & Unwin 1927 Jacket by Paul Nash. Novel (from ‘Paul & John Nash : Design by Brian Webb). (Despite being listed by Edmund Blunden in his checklist of War novels I can find no mention of the War in this book).

The Laurels are Cut Down by Archie Binns Raynal & Hitchcock 1937 2 brothers on the Russian Front

Harper Bros. 1930 The effects of the War on a Cockney clerk & his family (from JRF). (The UK ed is said to have a jacket by Eric Ravilious but no example of said jacket is known to have survived).

Medal without Bar by Richard Blaker Hodder 1930 with the RFA on the Western Front & Egypt

John Lane 1918. An American girls experiences as the Germans marched through Belgium (from John Bale Book Co.)

Robert Scott 1919. Memorial volume. 2nd Coldstream Guards. Killed on the Somme in 1916.