Her Privates We by Private 19022 (Frederic Manning) first edition 1930

MANNING, Frederic (1882-1935). Her Privates We. By Private 19022. London: Peter Davies, 1930.

First trade edition, first impression. Octavo, 453 pp. Publisher's original oatmeal cloth, lettered in black to the spine and upper board, the latter with a striking pictorial design of Death over a soldier's shoulder. Slight pushing to the corners of the cloth and occasional light spotting to the preliminary leaves. A near fine copy, exceptionally well preserved, without the original glassine wrapper.

One of the outstanding novels of the First World War, drawing on Manning's service on the Western Front and depicting the lives of ordinary soldiers during the Somme and Ancre campaigns of 1916. First published privately as The Middle Parts of Fortune in 1929, the novel reached a wider readership in this expurgated trade edition, with some of the soldiers' language removed or softened. Published under the pseudonym "Private 19022", Manning's army service number, and dedicated to his publisher, Peter Davies.