GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON JR.'S PERSONAL COPY OF LIFE ABOARD A BRITISH PRIVATEER IN THE TIME OF QUEEN ANNE, TWICE SIGNED BY HIM
(PATTON, Jr., George S.) (ROGERS, Woodes) LESLIE, Robert C., editor. Life Aboard a British Privateer in the Time of Queen Anne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1894. Octavo, original black-stamped blue cloth. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.
New edition, enlarged and revised, of this classic seafaring narrative, with folding frontispiece map of the world and nine figures and illustrations, signed in pencil on the front board by General Patton and additionally signed and dated by him ("Feb 7 1928") on the half title.
"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). This rare copy of Life Aboard a British Privateer—Patton's own copy—is twice signed by him. 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.
This work from Patton's library—Life Aboard a British Privateer—reflects Patton's adventurous spirit and his taste for risk. "The Rogers expedition is arguably the most successful privateering expedition ever to leave England. Rogers' achievement has been recently subject to question, with Glyndwr Williams noting that, 'for many who sailed on the Duke and Dutchess, "The success and Profit of this long and Hazardous Voyage"… turned sour.' Diana Souhami describes Rogers as a man of no particular education who, by the end of the voyage, was uneasy about his share of the prize money, at odds with his fellow captains, bankrupt and desperate. All of this may be true, but should not detract from the remarkable fact that the Rogers expedition was the first circumnavigation by a British fleet since Drake, captured prizes worth more up to that time than any other privateer except Drake, and did so with comparative small loss of life… Above all, and unlike any of his predecessors or followers, Rogers succeeeded in bringing home the Manila galleon to the Thames" (Beattie, British Privateering Voyages of the Early 18th Century, 98). The first edition was published in 1889. Owner signature on half title (slightly above Patton's) of James Sykes Gamble, an English botanist and Fellow of the Royal Society who specialized in the flora of the Indian sub-continent and sailed for India to become Director of the British Imperial Forest School.
Inner paper hinges expertly reinforced, a bit of toning to spine, light rubbing to head of spine. Patton often traveled with what he was reading, even on campaigns, and his books typically show signs of substantial wear. An extremely good copy.