WWII HC BOOK 1944 TITLED "INTO THE VALLEY" A SKIRMISH OF THE MARINES JOHN HERSEY

Description

Offered for auction is a copy of the First Printing in 1943 dated 1944.    The hard cover book with dustjacket  is titled as follows:
INTO THE VALLEY - A SKIRMISH OF THE MARINES
by JOHN HERSEY and Illustrations by MAJOR DONALD  L. DICKSON, U.S.M.C.
PUBLISHED BY THE SUN DIAL PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
The book “Into the Valley - A skirmish of the Marines” (GUADALCANAL) not noted in title and as noted above was first published in 1943 and as noted on the bottom of the dustjacket the following “This book is printed from the plates of the original edition. The text is complete and unabridged.  The lower price is made possible by the elimination of original production costs and the author’s acceptance of a reduced royalty”.  The published date is 1944 as noted in book by Sun Dial Press, Garden City, N.Y.   This hardcovered book contains 138 Clean pages.    The book is hardcover and has a dustjacket that has storage ware mostly on the back and edges as photo show, some discoloration on the back of the dustjacket as photos show. The book bindings are tight.  On the front endpaper is WWII note dated May 12, 1944 as follows “To Peg from (Lawr -possily Lawrence) dated May 12, 1944 as noted above.   The books size is 7 ¾ x 5 ½ x ¾ inches.
Below I have typed the information on the dustjacket front and back which is a brief description of another book titled “Guadalcanal Dairy” by Richard Tregaskis.  Also photographs are in the ad below.
From the front inside dustjacket the following is noted:
”ON THE 8TH OF OCTOBER”
I went down into a valley with Captain Rigaud of the United States Marines.  A small skirmish took place there.  The valley was on Guadalcanal, but it might have been anywhere.  The skirmish was just an episode in an insignificant battle.  This book is an attempt to recapture the feelings of Rigaud, his men, and myself, as we went down in to that jungle valley.”
This is the opening passage from one of the first great pieces of war reporting to come from a front line manned by Americans.  Here is the terrible fabric of war as it feels and sounds to the men themselves; here are the mud and the blood and the dying; here are the greatness of American boys in battle, and a flashing vision of what they are fighting for.
There is no “news” in the book; Mr. Hersey does not provide comforting interpretations for the armchair strategist.  His sole purpose is to bring to the five senses of the reader the actuality of one skirmish that might have occurred anywhere, and of which we shall have to firth hundreds and perhaps thousands before this war is won.  And if this skirmish ended in an American defeat growing our to a hopeless mission, it reveals all the better the kind of solid valor that is the stuff out of which eventual victories are made.
On the  back inside dustjacket the following is noted relative to a book titled:
”GUADALCANAL DIARY by Richard Tregaskis.
This a new chapter in the story of the United States Marines.  Because it was written by a crack newspaperman who knew how to do his job, it lacks rhetorical trimmings and melodramatic outbursts.  Tregaskis realized that he had a terrific story to send home; he added to the impact by telling it in simple, straightforward English.
The Diary begins on Sunday, July 26, 1942, on a transport bound for a destination still unknown, even to the Commanding Officer  of the troops aboard.  It tells of the fierce preparation by naval guns that preceded the landing on August 7th, and of the landing itself. (“Well, this is it!” said the Marines - and climbed into the barges.  Tregaskis was with the first of them.)  It describes the occupation by our forces of the tiny seven mile strip that included the invaluable airfield built by the Japs, and of our men’s magnificent defense of that strip against innumerable attacks by superior air, land, and sea forces.
Until the author’s departure in a B-17 bomber on September 26th, he ate, slept, and sweated with our front-line units.  His story is the straight day-by-day account of what he himself saw or learned from eyewitnesses during those seven weeks.  There is no stressing here of the mortal danger which Tregaskis so often shared with the fighting men, but there are tales galore of the heroism of the Marines themselves.  No one can read Guadalcanal Diary and not feel grateful to those superb troops for what they accomplished during that ordeal by fire, and to the author for telling us exactly how the thing was done.
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