MY EXPERIENCES IN THE WORLD WAR "WWI" GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING HC 1ST ED 1931

Description

Offered for auction from a recent estate sale  is an Early and quite Scarce Original 1st Edition Hard Cover book SET OF (TWO) 2 “VOLUME’S I & II  titled as follows
JOHN J. PERSHING’S - MY EXPERIENCES IN THE WORLD WAR
Both books Volume I & II are dated with copyright date of 1931 noting First Edition, Printed March 10, 1931.
The book set was published by “STOKES” as noted on the spine of the books. Frederick Abbott Stokes (November 4, 1857 – November 15, 1939) was an American publisher, founder and long-time head of the eponymous Frederick A. Stokes Company. ... Manhattan, New York City.
This early 1931 period  2 volume set by John J. Pershing has Sixty-nine reproduction from photographs and numerous maps. Volume I contains 400 pages, Volume II contains 436 pages. The bindings are tight on both books.  Pages are clean as my photos will show.  Light rub ware on exterior of hard covers.
Volume I has the following note written on first blank page as follows “Presented to Sayberry Camp Library by Mrs. Thomas Petterson” The next page has the embossed library stamp of Frederick L Koch Jr., the same embossed stamping present on the page noted “TO THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER”.   On the inside of the back hard cover shows where a library card holder was removed and hand written the word I believe “discarded” in very small writing. Those are the only detriments of Vol. I.
Volume II has the first blank page removed where on Vol. I has the handwritten Camp Sayberry Library note.  This book does not have the Koch embossed library stamping.  On the last page and the inside of the back hard cover is the holder and note pad for holding a library card.  These are the only detriments of Volume II.  I believe that both Volumes of John Pershing’s  book “MY EXPERIENCES IN THE WORLD WAR” are in very good condition considering they are 89 years old.  The books sizes are 9 ½ x 6 ½ x 1 5/8 inches.
I have taken over 20 photographs showing the titles of the chapters and illustrations in both books.  Many photographs of the exterior and interior of the books.  Please view my photos for condition.
Below I have type the FORWARD of the book:
My primary purpose in writing this story of the American Expeditionary Forces in France is to render what I conceive to be an important service to my country.  In that adventure there were many lessons useful to the American people, should they ever again be called to arms, and I felt it a duty to record them as I saw them.
The World War found us absorbed in the pursuits of peace and quite unconscious of probable threat to our security.  We would listen to no warnings of danger.  We had made small preparations for defense and none for aggression.  So when war actually came upon us we had to change the very habits of our livers and minds to meet its realities.  The slow process by which we achieved these changes and applied our latent power to the problems of combat in Europe, despite our will, our numbers and our wealth, I endeavor to describe.  Therein lie the lessons of which I write.
Once realizing their obligations, the American people willingly sent their sons to battle; with unstinted generosity, they gave of their substance; and with fortitude bore the sacrifices that fell to their lot.  They, too, served, and in their service inspired the armies to victory.
I am grateful to President Wilson and Secretary Baker for having selected me to command our armies and for the whole-hearted and unfailing support they accorded me.
To my comrades of the Allied armies I would say that I am not attempting to write a history of the World War, or of the epic part they took in it.  I write of our own army and for our own people, without consciously magnifying or minimizing the effort of any army or any people.  There is credit for all of us in the final triumph of our united arms.  The struggle of the Allies was much longer, their sacrifices much great than ours.
The men of all ranks who served with me in France added a brilliant page to the record of the American soldier’s devotion to country.  This modest work can only outline the stirring narrative of their achievements.  No commander was ever privileged to lead a finer force; no commander ever derived grater inspiration form the performance of his troops.  J.J.P.
Below additional information on General Pershing:
General of the Armies John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing GCB (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Western Front in World War I, 1917–18.
Pershing rejected British and French demands that American forces be integrated with their armies, and insisted that the AEF would operate as a single unit under his command, although some American divisions fought under British command, and he also allowed all-black units to be integrated with the French army.
Pershing's soldiers first saw serious battle at Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Soissons. To speed up the arrival of American troops, they embarked for France leaving heavy equipment behind, and used British and French tanks, artillery, airplanes and other munitions. In September 1918 at St. Mihiel, the First Army was directly under Pershing's command; it overwhelmed the salient – the encroachment into Allied territory – that the German Army had held for three years. For the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Pershing shifted roughly 600,000 American soldiers to the heavily defended forests of the Argonne, keeping his divisions engaged in hard fighting for 47 days, alongside the French. The Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which the Argonne fighting was part of, contributed to Germany calling for an armistice. Pershing was of the opinion that the war should continue and that all of Germany should be occupied in an effort to permanently destroy German militarism.
Pershing is the only American to be promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies rank, the highest possible rank in the United States Army.  Allowed to select his own insignia, Pershing chose to use four gold stars to distinguish himself from those officers who held the rank of General, which was signified with four silver stars.  After the creation of the five-star General of the Army rank during World War II, his rank of General of the Armies could unofficially be considered that of a six-star general, but he died before the proposed insignia could be considered and acted upon by Congress.
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