Description
First edition of A Soldier’s Story by General Omar Bradley, inscribed to Lt. Colonel Edmond, a D-Day veteran who helped to secure Omaha Beach.
Octavo, xix, [1], 618pp. Tan cloth, title printed in red and blue over cloth on spine. Illustrated endpapers with maps of the European theater. The second printing of A Soldier’s Story, lacking the “first edition” statement on copyright page. In the publisher’s first state dust jacket, $5.00 on front flap, light wear along hinges, bright illustrations.
Inscribed on the title page: “Best regards to Lt. Col. Emil V.B. Edmond / Omar N. Bradley.”
Emil V. B. Edmond (1917 – 2002) was a career United States Army officer and a member of the first unit to cross Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, with the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. He fought in eight European campaigns and three assault landings, earning the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and the Combat Infantry Badge. After the war, remained in the Army until 1970, retiring as a colonel.
He provided historian Cornelius Ryan with firsthand accounts of Normandy, which were used in The Longest Day.
Ryan: “Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now [about D-Day]?”
Edmond: “There is nothing funny about that day to me either in retrospect or otherwise.”
