Description
The first edition of War As I Knew It by Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., his posthumous memoirs, signed by his wife, Beatrice Ayer Patton.
Octavo, xix, [1], 425pp, [3]. Red cloth, title stamped in gilt. No additional printings noted. Complete with 12 maps and illustrated endpapers. Light sunning along top quarter of cloth, dust remnants along top of text block. Foxing to verso of frontispiece. In the publisher’s first state dust jacket, $3.75 on the front flap, archival tape reinforcement to verso, exceptionally bright color on the spine, a very good example.
Signed on the half-title by Beatrice Ayer Patton. The only known example signed by Mrs. George S. Patton.
Beatrice Banning Ayer Patton (1886-1953) was the wife of U.S. General George S. Patton. She was born in Massachusetts, the daughter of industrialist Frederick Ayer, and married George Patton in 1910. Patton was educated, multilingual, and wrote several works, including a book on Hawaiian legend, titled “Blood of the Shark: A Romance of Early Hawaii.” She supported the U.S. war effort during World War II through bond drives and public speaking.
After General Patton’s death in 1945, she assisted in publishing this memoir, “War as I Knew It.” She died in 1953 from a ruptured aortic aneurysm while riding in Hamilton, Massachusetts.
