PLOWMAN, Max, as Mark VII.

£1,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

A Subaltern on the Somme in 1916. First edition, in the scarce jacket, of one of the most significant Great War books. "His account of a spell in the half-formed line between Lesboeufs and Gueudecourt in the all-pervading mud of that dreadful winter... is as vivid as anything that has been written about the Somme fighting" (Falls).Plowman (1883-1941) signed up despite deep moral misgivings about the rightness of war. Invalided out from the western front, he was treated for shell shock and refused to rejoin his unit in 1918. Tried and dismissed from the army, he became an active member of the Peace Pledge Union and edited the New Adelphi, striking up a close friendship with Orwell, whose contributions he encouraged. His is "one of the most important memoirs of disillusionment" (Lengel).

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