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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

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Dust Jacket Collector

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As a book collector this series published by the Bodley Head between 1919 & 1922 has always fascinated me. It was, by far, the most comprehensive uniform series of books to be published in the aftermath of the War. Definitive details of the exact make-up of the series is hard to come by, but as far as I can tell there were some 28 volumes, all bar 1 or 2 in a uniform binding showing an Artillery Battery in action. The series covered most aspects of the War - Personal memoirs from most arms of the services & areas of action, Unit histories, POW accounts, Nursing memoirs etc.

All volumes of the series were originally issued in dust jackets, and, being a particular interest of mine, I've managed to acquire images of 19 of the series. Such things are exceedingly scarce, even the original publisher only has 3 on file, & I think it would be of interest historically if a complete set of images could be gathered. I'm therefore asking if any members can supply images of the missing 9 volumes. The ones I already have can be seen on my website - http://www.greatwardustjackets.co.uk/page48.html. If anyone has any additional information on the series then please let me know. I've almost managed to complete the set myself (not all jacketed of course),& I'm only lacking 3 volumes so please feel free to point me in the direction of any original copies of the Davies, Klein or Thompson volumes. Below is a list of what I believe to be the complete set :-

Aquila (Capt. J.D.Delius)- With the Cavalry in the West 1922

S. Ashmead - Bartlett From the Somme to the Rhine 1921

Ernest Betts - The Bagging of Baghdad 1920

H. C. W. Bishop - A Kut Prisoner 1920

Helen Boulnois - Some Soldiers & Little Mama 1919

Corporal (John Crofts) - Field Ambulance Sketches 1919

Stanley Coxon - Dover during the Dark Days 1919

Ellen Davies - Ward Tales 1920

T. H. Floyd - At Ypres with Best-Dunkley 1920

Daryl Klein - With the Chinks 1919

Dorothy Lawrence - Sapper Dorothy Lawrence 1919

S. H. Long - In the Blue 1920

J. C. Macintosh - Men & Tanks 1921

Clutha Mackenzie - Tale of a Trooper 1921

Andre Maurois - Silence of Colonel Bramble 1919

George Muhlhauser - Small Craft 1920

Orex (Maj. H.F.Bidder) - Three Chevrons 1919

W. G. Peterson - Silhouettes of Mars 1920

R N V (Lt. Eric Dawson) - Pushing Water 1919

Cecil Sommers - Temporary Crusaders 1919

John Still - A Prisoner in Turkey 1920

D. Sutherland - War Diary of 5th Seaforth Highlanders 1920

Henrietta Tayler - A Scottish Nurse at Work 1920

G. W. Taylor - The Boy with the Guns 1919

Beatrice Thompson - Four Months in Italy in War-Time 1920

C. Hampton Thorp - A Handful of Ausseys 1919

Douglas Walshe - With the Serbs in Macedonia 1920

Ernest Warburton - Behind Boche Bars 1920

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I'm reluctant to let this pass completely unnoticed, so before it drops to page 4 & eventual oblivion let me finally try to bring this to the attention of interested members who may have been at work this morning.

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These do seem to be a particularly difficult set of books to find !

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These do seem to be a particularly difficult set of books to find !

Indeed they are. The only ones I see with any degree of regularity are 'Dover during the Dark Days' & the Maurois which may be due to his being a known author. It's certainly one of the few to be reprinted.

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  • 5 weeks later...
Guest martine kouwenhoven

I am looking for the book or manuscript which contains two pictures of Dorothy Lawrence, one named the Author and another one of her in the Land´s Army. I saw you´ve posted them on the forum. I´ve obtained the book Women War Heroines (very interesting!), but it did not contain any photographs. Do you know where these photos appeared? I am writing an article about her, and I would really like to use these photos, but I have to find out who has copyrights of these pictures.

She still remains much of a mystery to me..

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There are 5 pictures of Dorothy in the Sapper Dorothy Lawrence book. I doubt there would be any issue about using the pictures after all this time. If you wish to check I'd suggest you contact the Random House Group who now hold the rights to Bodley Head's output. I'd be happy to scan the pictures from the book if you want them. They are :-

Dorothy in uniform, the author in private life, the author in senlis forest, the author on land army work & another of her in private life.

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  • 8 months later...

Judging by the frenzy of interest initiated by the last appearance of this topic, I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know I've found another volume in its jacket - Muhlhauser's 'Small Craft', so only 8 more needed. I also only need 2 volumes, Thompson & Klein, to complete my own set.

I'm still surprised by how little this series is known today. Written as they all were shortly after the War's end they probably give a truer impression of how the War was perceived at the time than that found in many of the more disillusioned memoirs of the thirties.

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Congratulations on finding another jacketed copy, I have a few of them in my collection, what is quite frustrating about the series, I find, is that some of them are

very common and others are as rare as hen's teeth.

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Congratulations on finding another jacketed copy, I have a few of them in my collection, what is quite frustrating about the series, I find, is that some of them are

very common and others are as rare as hen's teeth.

Indeed. I just checked on ABE. Of the 28 volumes only 10 are available in their original form & only 4 of those as more than a single copy - Coxon, Muhlhauser, Maurois & Sutherland.
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And of course sod's law dictates that the one's that I am interested in are the most hardest to find :angry2:

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  • 6 months later...

Thanks to another forum member I now have an original Klein 'With the Chinks', so only Thompson's ' Four Months in Italy in War-time' to complete the set.

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Who are the Chinks? Is this a title that would be very politically/ethnically incorrect these days?

Cheers Martin B

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Yes Martin, the Chinese Labour Corps = Chinks.

The use of chinky to mean a chinese takeaway was very common until recently in my neck of the woods, not used by the younger generation at all, just the older ones stuck in their ways.

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Who are the Chinks? Is this a title that would be very politically/ethnically incorrect these days?

Cheers Martin B

I suppose the word was considered to be acceptable when this book was published (1919). The current reprint still uses the same title.
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  • 9 months later...

I've been lucky enough to acquire this elusive title in the series.

behind boche bars.jpeg

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Nice find, John. Like most of them it's very scarce. Tom in Brighton sold me a copy in its jacket for a tidy sum about 5 years ago but not seen one since.

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No, it's the first I've seen for sale. I got it on an e-bay auction ( only bidder ) and noticed that the photo was dated Jan 15 , so I checked on

Amazon and realised it was also for sale on there ,it must have been there a long time. It's strange, because I normally go on there regularly

to check for my 'wants' but for some reason i missed it. As it turned out it was quite fortunate, as i picked it up for a third of the price that i would

have had to pay for it on Amazon. I also notice it is a review copy as is my copy of ' Three Chevrons'.

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  • 1 year later...

Having never seen another copy for sale in twenty years , this is one book I thought I would never find , especially priced at £20 .

594ccc4c13fba_MenandTanksforum.jpeg.b249f3cbf5581adbcb7f62ef38e372e4.jpeg

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Are you aiming to collect all 28 volumes?

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No Alan , I decided a while back to limit my collection to the Western Front and Gallipoli  . The other ones I already have like  ' Temporary Crusaders' I

shall keep and if i see a REALLY cheap copy of any others I may be tempted , but I have all the ones I really want now .

Edited by Black Maria
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  • 2 years later...

Five and a half years after starting this thread and I’ve only managed to unearth one fresh jacket, this one to Ashmead-Bartlett’s ‘Somme to the Rhine’ via the late Bob Wyatt’s collection. Just 7 more to go.18FD6138-E6B0-45AE-8BB0-2ED96E5275CD.jpeg.3fc4e16cb6d64f0caa5248cf68b24e72.jpeg

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Chin up Alan, the next auction of Bob's collection might plug a few more gaps.

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Managing to collect the whole series is quite an achievement in itself but to get that many in jackets is rather special . I wonder if there are any other people

out there collecting them ?

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39 minutes ago, Black Maria said:

Managing to collect the whole series is quite an achievement in itself but to get that many in jackets is rather special . I wonder if there are any other people

out there collecting them ?

Well there were, given that David Pritchard and Bob Wyatt had quite a few, but now - who knows?

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11 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Well there were, given that David Pritchard and Bob Wyatt had quite a few, but now - who knows?

I see TD has put three new ones up for sale if anyone is thinking of starting their collection and has a spare £785 to spare .

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