The War the Infantry Knew

[George Armstrong Custer]

A rather pricey copy wasn't it? No wonder there were no bidders!

TheWarTheInfantryKnew

ciao,

GAC

[charlesmessenger]

The original edition ran to only some 200 copies (Grumpy will correct me if I am wrong). The fact that it belonged to Field Marshal Sir John Dill gives it added value. I am therefore not too surprised by the asking price.

Charles M

[George Armstrong Custer]

Yes, I'm sure the Dill association would be attractive to many buyers, Charles, though how much it ought to add to the value I'm not sure. The seller of The War The Infantry Knew was selling several volumes from Dill's library last week, and I successfully bid on three - Sir Douglas Haig's Despatches with the maps folio, Volume I & II of Edmonds's Official History 1914 (including two handwritten letters from Edmonds to Dill relevant to incidents in 1914), and Volume I of the Official History 1915. For all of these I was the only bidder and paid, respectively, £24.99, £49.99 and £19.99. All bargains in their own right I think, with Dill's inscription of ownership on them all being a bonus - and the letters from Edmonds on his research to Dill being unpublished primary sources with a seperate value of their own. I was just surprised that no-one else bid on these at those prices - even without the Dill association. So I suppose the £499.99 opening price on The War The Infantry Knew must reflect that initial print run of 200 you refer to - though as so many other editions of the work are available I imagine the pool of potential buyers at that price would probably be quite small.

ciao,

GAC

[Tom A McCluskey]

George,

Fortunately, my dog-eared, paperback copy was free off of Black Jock - he got it for buttons in The Works . IMHO A tome, in the truest sense to any student or reader of the Great War. I enjoyed reading it immensely and often refer back to it for supporting evidence and general facts. By the way, I took some of your sage advice and purchased the last cheap copy of Covenant with Death (Amazon). I haven't read a novel in years, and look forward to reading this one by John Harris.

Aye

Tom McC

[Andrew Hesketh]

I got mine cheap from The Works too! Outstanding book. Oddly enough I've just started reading it again for the second time.

[stevem49]

Mine is a 2003 reprint but as it is owned by me, it is worth a fortune

A really good read though.

SM

[JohnBurnett]

All,

The original edition that was on ebay just arrived today. It was on ebay twice without a bid. I contacted the seller and we agreed on a lower price.

I once had an original edition but had to sell it when I was in graduate school. I do cherish those first hand accounts!

John

[Muerrisch]

I blame TWTIK for my current plight!

Best avoided if you don't want the Great War lurgi.

As a matter of interest, Dr Dunn's personal copy of Robt. Graves's Goodbye to All That is annotated copiously by Dunn, and the good Doctor descended to writing BALLS in the margin, in addition to longer, more explicit criticisms. I imagine that copy would comfortably top any TWTIK price.

[geraint]

Grumpy - do you posses that edition?

My 1987 reprint TWTIK came from a second hand book store at Wrexham, for 50p. It was on a 'Fiction' shelf!! Invaluable, and oft read.

[Muerrisch]

The Dunn copy of GTAT is held by the regimental museum.

I took my GTAT to Caernarfon and copied the annotations as my marginalia in red ink.