Sergeant York: The Story of His Life.

YORK, Alvin C.

$3,800.00

Item Number: 145328

New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1928.

Alvin C. York’s first edition copy of his autobiography, basis for the 1941 film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Gary Cooper. Octavo, original yellow cloth, frontispiece of a portrait of Alvin C. York, illustrated with eleven plates of black and white photographs. York’s personal corrections penciled in throughout, including several notations on the front free endpaper asking the publisher to correct a list of pages, a canceled page affixed to p. 247, and several pages torn out. In very good condition, paperclip rusting to the front panel, stamp to the front free endpaper, “Please Return This Book Promptly to the Planning Department Doubleday, Page & Company,” and publisher’s plate adhered to the rear panel, “This Book Is The Property Of The Planning Department Please Return,” with the front flap of the original dust jacket laid in. A unique example.

October 8th, 1918—amid the last of the Allies attempts to the Germans, Sergeant Alvin York of Tennessee, found himself and his platoon of only seventeen men trapped in the thick of heavy machine gun fire. Rather than retreating or calling upon the artillery to take out the nest, York single-handedly took out twenty-five Germans, dropping them one-by-one, and captured many more. This is only one of the many tales of York’s famed heroism, which were heralded as some of the most impressive battle stories in history of modern warfare. Sergeant York contains the legendary soldier’s war diaries, which offer up-close snapshots of his fabled military career. If you have seen the classic Gary Cooper film, you know about Sergeant York. But to really know the American hero, you need to read his own story in his own words. “An American legend" (The New York Times).