Winged Victory

Winged Victory by Victor Maslin Yeates

London: Jonathan Cape, 1934. First edition, first impression. Sized 150mm x 205mm. Pp. 456. In its original, unclipped dust wrapper.

Incredibly SCARCE first edition/first impression to find as a book, let alone presenting in its original dust jacket.

"This was England. Wandering lanes, hedged and ditched; casual opulent beauty; trees heavy with fulfilment. This was his native land. He did not care."

A classic novel of WW1 aerial warfare; written by a former Sopwith Camel pilot and 'ace' who served with 46 Squadron R.F.C. on the Western Front in 1918. Closely based on Yeates’s own flying experiences in 1918, with most of the characters having had their counterpart in real life, many of the flying scenes described in the book actually happened to Yeates (Gordon Atkins, Winged Victor: A Biography of Victor Yeates, Springwater Books, 2004).

The book covers the period of the 1918 German Spring Offensive and the Allied Forces’ rally in August that was the beginning of the end of the war: a very difficult time. The flying scenes are authentic and magnificent. The feeling of comradeship among the men is inspiring, covering the whole range of emotion and thought that churns round men’s minds in those circumstances. But the mood gradually changes: the optimism of the opening passage when Tom Cundall first arrives at the Front becomes more sombre – and eventually disillusionment sets in.

Victor Maslin Yeates was a friend of English writer Henry Williamson, who worked hard to promote Winged Victory after Yeates tragic early death in 1934. T. E. Lawrence was another admirer of the book, describing it as 'One of the most distinguished histories of the war.’ (The Henry Williamson Society) 

Condition

Publisher's original cloth binding with silver lettering to front board and spine. Clean and unmarked with only a few patches of discolouration and darkening to extremities. Spine tips lightly bumped and one ding to rear panel (close to bottom corner). Corners straight. Text block shows a light lean. Foxing contained to edges. Penned inscription to FFEP. Occasional thumbing throughout, but innocuous and not affecting text. Else a very good example.

In a rather poor UNCLIPPED (10s. 6d. net) dust wrapper, showing significant wear and loss (about a third of the spine to bottom, and a good inch to top-left of the front panel). Chipping to edges, some creasing, and substantial tanning. The dust wrapper has now been placed in a removable, protective sleeve of archival quality, backed by a sheet of archival paper to provide some structure to it. All easily removable.

A very rare example.