"LIKE EVERY OTHER CLASS, MY OWN ALWAYS LOOKED UP TO '12'": INSCRIBED BY EISENHOWER TO THE WEST POINT CLASS OF 1912, WITH A PRESENTATION LETTER

EISENHOWER, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe. Garden City: Doubleday, 1948. Octavo, original tan cloth, cartographic endpapers, original dust jacket.

Book club edition, with numerous illustrations and maps, including four double-page color maps of the European theatre and battlefields, inscribed on the title page: "For 1912—all the best from Dwight D. Eisenhower." With a November 10, 1952 typed letter from President-elect Eisenhower to the President of the West Point Class of 1912 laid in.

Eisenhower's memoir provides an important and unique perspective on the difficult command-level decisions that decided the outcome of World War II. Included are numerous battlefield and theater maps (a number in color), as well as photographs selected by Edward Steichen. The first trade edition was published in 1948 and was preceded the same year by a signed limited edition of 1426 copies. This copy is from a book club edition, with no mention of edition or printing on copyright page and small slug at lower right corner of rear panel, in slightly taller trade edition dust jacket with $5.00 price on front flap. Bookplate on front free endpaper. Laid into this copy is a typed letter from the Office of Dwight D. Eisenhower, dated November 10, 1952, in which the President-elect—just two days after winning the election—presumably responds to a letter of congratulations from Robert T. Snow, President of the West Point class of 1912, writing: "It was indeed kind of you to send me such a cordial note from the Class of 1912. Like every other class, my own always looked up to '12' as representing all that was finest and best—as well as the most terrifying—in West Point, so I am especially grateful for your good wishes and your expression of pride. My very best to any of your classmates that you may encounter." (Eisenhower graduated from West Point in 1915.) Laid in as well are two envelopes from the Office of Dwight D. Eisenhower, postmarked August and November 1952, and also a draft of a 1957 letter from Snow requesting a message of greeting from the President Eisenhower to be read aloud to the class of 1912 at their upcoming 45th reunion.

Book about-fine, dust jacket with some edge-wear and creasing, very good.