Up Front.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, [1945]. Hardcover. Small 4to. Brown cloth with green lettering and decoration, pictorial non-price-clipped ($3.00) dust jacket. 228pp. Numerous line drawings. Near fine/good plus. Typically edge-chipped dust jacket is complete and fairly nice. Item #47265
Quite tight and attractive later printing of this military comedy by "Willie and Joe" cartoon creator Bill Mauldin (1921-2003) -- but with choice autograph addition: Tipped to front flyleaf is a fine heavy stock 5" X 4" card signed and inscribed by Tom Ewell, n.p., n.d. He boldly pens "From / Tom Ewell / To Francis" in black ink. Everyone remembers this comic character (1909-94) in the Marilyn Monroe skirt-raising scene in "The Seven Year Itch" (1955), but he was an accomplished stage actor as well -- and played Willie in the 1951 film version of Mauldin's book. Why the jacket cites World Publishing Company and not Henry Holt and Company as publisher is not clear, but in any case this copy is NOT the dirt common book club edition.
Price: $100.00