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Sergeant York. His Own Life Story and War Diary

Alvin YORK   |   Tom SKEYHILL

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Item#: 128162 price:$4,800.00

Sergeant York. His Own Life Story and War Diary
Sergeant York. His Own Life Story and War Diary
Sergeant York. His Own Life Story and War Diary

"I DIDN'T WANT TO KILL A WHOLE HEAP OF GERMANS NOHOW. I DIDN'T HATE THEM. BUT I DONE IT JES THE SAME"

YORK, Alvin, with SKEYHILL, Tom. Sergeant York. His Own Life Story and War Diary. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1928. Octavo, original orange cloth, original dust jacket. $4800.

First edition of this acclaimed Medal of Honor winner's account of his life in war and back home in rural Tennessee, signed by him.

From an impoverished family in rural Tennessee, York ended up in the army in World War I only after claim of conscientious objector status was rejected. In October 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, York led an attack on a German machine-gun nest that killed at least 25 enemy soldiers and captured 132 of them. Initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, he was shortly after given the Medal of Honor, the United States' military's highest decoration. Although at first unnoticed after the war, a 1919 article in the Saturday Evening Post brought intense media attention to York; the combination of his rural and picturesque (if also impoverished) background, his innate modesty, and his wartime valor appealed immensely to the American public. But York repeatedly refused to capitalize on his fame, turning down book and movie deals for years. York only agreed to publish this work—focused equally on his early life in Tennessee and his military exploits—in order to fund "a school which he has built for his neighbors' children." The 1941 movie Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper, was based in large part on this account. Both critically and popularly successful, it was the highest grossing movie of 1941, earning 11 Academy Award nominations, with Cooper winning Best Actor.

Book about-fine, front inner hinge expertly reinforced, dust jacket with mild toning to spine, a few short closed tears, a little bit of wear to spine corners. Scarce signed and in dust jacket.

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