Description
The first edition, first printing of Rickenbacker: An Autobiography, inscribed by Eddie Rickenbacker to fellow WWI aviator, Warren S. Pressler.
Octavo, x, 458pp. Two-tone cloth, title stamped in gilt on spine. The first printing, with no additional printings noted. Light wear and fading to margins of the cloth boards, splash mark to rear board. Internally clean, solid text block. Illustrated with black-and-white photographic plates. In the publisher’s near fine dust jacket, $7.95 retail price on front flap, touch of shelf wear, bright illustrations. Letter from Rickenbacker to Pressler affixed to the dedication page, dated 1968, but difficult to read.
Inscribed on the front free endpaper: “With my best wishes to my good friend, ‘Warren S. Pressler.’ Eddie Rickenbacker 1968.”
Warren Semans Pressler (1891-1978) was an Indiana-born World War I aviator who served in France with the 96th Aero Squadron, a U.S. Army Air Service day-bombardment unit. Before his overseas service, Pressler was associated with early aviation in Wabash County, where he barnstormed in farm fields to promote public enthusiasm for wartime flight.
