Tales of A Dug-Out
London: E. George & Sons, 1915. First Edition. Octavo. 17.5cm. Publisher's grey cloth titled and decorated in dark grey and black to spine and front board. 122pp. Bumped to spine ends, with some soiling and discoloration of the cloth in places and some cosmetic wear to corners and edges, strong and solid; internally clean with some mild toning to the cheap wartime paper in places, and spotting to the page edges. A very good copy with some cosmetic wear.
A rather curious little piece, ostensibly a collection of short stories from the front, penned by a wounded officer returned to civvy life after being part of the BFE. The author is apparently well known as a sporting writer, but has chosen to remain anonymous for this little collection, presented as short stories, but with the warning that only some of them are actually true, and the rest mere fiction. The publisher offers up a prize of Five Pounds (the equivalent of about $1000 in modern purchasing power) for the reader who can correctly identify the true stories and separate them from the fiction. A previous reader has marked neat pencil asterisks next to the tales they feel to be the rue ones on the contents page. An interesting little item, and an example of the creative and unconventional lengths publisher's would go to during wartime to encourage readership.
Price: $125.00