CROSBY, Harry (his copy); Moore, William E.

£3,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington

U.S. Official Pictures of the World War. The copy of Harry Crosby, with his ownership signature dated 29 October 1921 on the front pastedown next to his handwritten rank, "private 1[st] Cl[ass], SSU [Section Sanitaire Américaine] 641, USAAC". This is from the first edition; other copies are known in green cloth. Crosby was 19 when he joined the American Ambulance Service. He experienced the front line of the Battle of Verdun and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his valor. The war changed him forever, and much of his subsequent writing is coloured by the horrors he witnessed. These official pictures present a tightly curated perspective of America's involvement in the First World War. While there are several poignant images of fallen soldiers, the majority portray troops in their "downtime", posed group photographs, and aerial shots of battlefields. There are photographs of active combat taken from a distance and, in the photographs of injured troops, there are invariably smiling faces. A further three volumes were published.

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