Rommel.

YOUNG, Desmond [Raymond Chandler].

$850.00

Item Number: 149311

London: Collins, 1950.

First edition of this seminal biography that examines the life and military career of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, from the library of Raymond Chandler with his ownership stamp to the front free endpaper. Octavo, original publisher’s full cloth. Raymond Chandler was a novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot”, was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett’s Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with “private detective”. Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe. Very good in a very good dust jacket with a small loss to the front panel and the crown of the spine. A nice association.

A seminal biography that examines the life and military career of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Published in 1950, it was the first comprehensive account of Rommel's actions during World War II, particularly in the North African campaign. Young, a former British Army officer who served in North Africa and was captured by Rommel's forces, provides a detailed portrayal that contributed to the "Rommel myth," depicting him as the "good German" and a chivalrous adversary. This narrative significantly influenced post-war perceptions of Rommel, leading to the 1951 film adaptation The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, which further cemented his legacy in popular culture. ​