Description
Presentation copy of Report By The Supreme Commander by General Dwight D. Eisenhower to Lt. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow, bound in full black leather for close family and notable Allied leaders.
Octavo, x, 123pp, [5]. Publisher’s full black leather, flexible boards, title in gilt on front cover. Archival leather repair to front hinge. Silk endpapers. Includes 11 color maps of the European battle theatre of World War II. Housed in custom cloth clamshell, title stamped in gilt on cover.
Signed on the second free endpaper: “To “Gee” / One of the outstanding battle leaders of World War II, with the admiration and gratitude from his old friend / Ike.”
From the Eisenhower Library: “…a handful of copies of this report were bound for presentation by General Eisenhower. The copy he presented to his brother Edgar is currently in our holdings.” This is the only other known copy outside of the presentation copy to his brother.
Lt. General Leonard T. Gerow (1888-1972) was the commander of the Fifth Corps on D-Day and became the first American general to enter Paris after its liberation in 1944. Three years prior, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Gen. Gerow was named to head the War Plans Division, until a reorganization named his successor, Brig. Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower first met Gerow in 1925 at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, where they became study partners and remained friends for the rest of their careers.
