"GREAT MEN ARE ALONE": GEORGE PATTON'S PERSONAL COPY OF THE MEMOIRS OF PROMINENT NAPOLEONIC GENERAL MARBOT, SIGNED, DATED, AND EXTENSIVELY ANNOTATED THROUGHOUT BY PATTON
(PATTON, George S.) (MARBOT, Jean Baptiste Antoine Marcellin de) THOMASON, John W., Jr., editor and illustrator. Adventures of General Marbot by Himself. New York, London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935. Large octavo, original black cloth respined with remnants of original spine laid down. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
Fantastic association copy of the first edition of this richly illustrated memoir of Napoleonic general Marbot—General George Patton's own copy, signed and dated by him in ink on the front free endpaper—"G.S. Patton Jr. / May 8, 1936"—and with pencil marginal annotations, markings and underlinings on more than 20 pages in his hand throughout the text, indicating that he carefully read and studied this copy.
"General George S. Patton Jr. has earned a place in the pantheon of authentic American heroes…. [Yet] his great success on the battlefield did not come about by chance…. He read voraciously" (D'Este, Patton, 3-4, 317-18). No other military leader wrote so frequently in his letters or diary what he was reading, and no leader's library was so well-documented since Napoleon's. Patton's library, which was almost entirely inherited by his son, Major General George Patton III, was given to West Point, with just a small portion of books, including these volumes, inherited by other descendants or friends. Some years ago, when a prominent bookseller was discussing Patton's library with his son, his son remarked, "My old man could afford to buy the books and he could afford to write in them—nobody else in the army had any money." Patton's book collection remains a testament to the value he placed on books and the interest he took in them as tools for learning.
Several examples of his many notes are listed below:
Page xii: On the last page of the foreword Patton notes "Peoples always do," and outlines several paragraphs noting "True." The section that Patton has highlighted reads, "Napoleon kept round his person, and showered favors upon, the friend of his youth and the companions of his beginnings. The Emperor disliked new faces, and the trait increased in him as his career unfolded. Here is pathos: his flaming spirit never felt the chill of age and fat, but the lean and brilliant paladins who served him in '96, and in 1800, and at Austerlitz in 1805, were tired and heavy old men in 1814, while he remained as young as ever. He would have been better served perhaps, if he pensioned off certain elderly Marshals, gorged with gold and glory, and elevated in their placed young and ambitious chaps, of whom he had a plenty in his armies, with place and fortune yet to win."
Page 46: "Listen with drum," alongside a paragraph describing how the army was able to hear the sound of distant musketry by placing a drum on the ground and placing one's ear to the drum which amplified the sound.
Page 48: "Promotion for merit," emphasizing a passage on the importance of recognizing achievement, and acknowledging this immediately with a promotion.
Page 143: "Good idea," and underlines a passage stating "Emperor had a habit of distributing honors and promotions to those officers only who were with the colors."
Page 165: "Lack of back pieces causes loss of fight." Patton, always a student of strategy, highlights a paragraph discussing the difference in armor between the Austrians, who had cuirasses which only covered them in the front thus giving them no protection to the back, compared to the French troopers who had double cuirasses covering both the front and the back, allowing them to focus completely on the enemy in front of them.
Page 170: "Leadership" next to a paragraph in which Napoleon demonstrates fearless leadership by coming to the front of the line of battle.
Page 171: "Glory versus Money / leadership." Patton underlines the sentence "The Emperor had fastened the decoration on his breast, and he seemed to think a great deal more of this than of his annuity of 1200 francs. It was by familiarities of this kind that the Emperor made the soldiers adore him, but it was a means that was only available to a commander whom frequent victories had made illustrious."
Page 354: "Great men are alone and tend get no advice." Next to a passage describing Napoleon's decision to invade Russia, which states "Removed from the ordinary checks and balances that surround and keep in reason every-day human beings, the Emperor no longer saw the line that divides the possible from the impossible."
In all, Patton has made marginal comments on at least 18 pages. First edition, with Scribner's "A" on copyright page. Without original dust jacket; with front panel of jacket trimmed and affixed to front pastedown. This volume acquired directly from the Patton family.
Faint marginal dampstain along upper edge of text, with extremities of cloth also affected by water. Patton's ownership signature slightly affected by water, though still clear and bold. A very good and desirable annotated Napoleonic military memoir from Patton's library.