[A.E.F.] GRAVES, William S. [Sidney]

America's Siberian Adventure, 1918-1920

New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, (1931). First Edition. Inscribed on front endpaper: "To Lieut. Coffman / with my sincere regards- / Wm. S. Graves / Major Gen'l, U.S. Army Retired." First printing. Octavo; tan cloth hardcover; black top-stain; dustjacket; xxiv,363pp; frontis. portr; seven inserted leaves of photographic plates (halftones); text illus. Trivial spotting to boards (very faint), else a fine copy, with top-stain deep, even and unfaded. In the scarce dustwrapper, unclipped (priced $3.50 at base of front flap), slightly toned and edge-rubbed, still Very Good or better. Laid-in is a second loose autograph sentiment signed by Graves, as well as an original government notice, dated August, 1920, to holders of American passports travelling into Soviet Russia.

Graves (1865-1940) was Commander of American forces in Siberia during the Allied Intervention in Russia following the 1917 Revolution. His detailed account of the Siberian Expedition remains an important source for the history of U.S. involvement in the Russian Civil War. One historian has written that "...of the entire sad debacle, he [Graves] may have been the only honorable man" (see Benson Bobrick, East of the Sun: The Conquest and Settlement of Siberia, Lon: 1992 p. 398). Graves's autograph is not especially common, and this book is seldom found in dustwrapper.

Price: $500.00

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