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KING, DEAN with HATTENDORF, JOHN B - Editors: : Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of first-hand accounts from the age of Nelson.1793-1815

LONDON.CONWAY MARITIME PRESS/An imprint of BRASSEYs (UK) LTD.,1997.

ISBN 0851777562.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn. NFINE/NFINE. No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright, crisp,clean,glossy,with vignetted colour pictorial painting illustrated front panel of dw/dj,with brown lettered part-title and capitalised white lettered sub-title,a mix of lower case+capitalised lettered Editors' names; navy blue background to spine/backstrip with capitalised,white lettered editors' surnames at its head,white lettered part-title and b/w illustrated+lettered publisher's colophon to foot of same,navy blue background to rear panel with critics' white lettered reviews.Minimal bumping,creasing to edges and corners; majority of light creasing to upper+lower edges of dw/dj - its corner tips with miniscule rubbing,top rear tip with tiny closed nick - but no other nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges clean without foxing/spotting; contents bright, tight,clean,soild and sound - virtually pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips,appears unread,other than my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,original plain navy blue cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt lettered spine/ backstrip,a navy blue+white striped headband,and immaculate plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+ dw/dj,1st edn,vi-xxxviipp+3-425pp [paginated] includes Contents list/table - last page of which with one page of double-page b/w map to its reverse,the 2nd facing page with a b/w map to its reverse with blank verso, Acknowledgements,Foreword by John B. Hattendorf, an Introduction by Dean King,An Editorial Note, Abbreviations list/table,List of b/w Maps and Charts,a list of Gratuities to the relations of Officers and Others killed in action Pts I-IV (1-4) comprising 9,1,7 and 5 chapters respectively,b/w maps by Adsam Merton Cooper,b/w charts interspersed throughout the text and the book,Notes on the Texts,a Selected Bibliography and an Index; plus [unpaginated] a blank with publisher's thumbnail b/w illustrated colophon, half-title,other works (2) by Dean King advert with b/w illustrated frntis to its reverse,title page,a dedication with blank verso,individual thumbnail b/w illustrated Pts separator pages and a prose extract from John Pasco (1774–1853) - HMS Victory's signal lieutenant at the Battle of Trafalgar who notably advised on the wording of Nelson's famous signal "England expects that every man will do his duty",and in this role,he was to hoist that famous signal.At Nelson's state funeral in January 1806 Pasco was given the honour of accompanying the coffin to St Paul's Cathedral with some of the other officers (and one warrant officer) from the Victory. Visually the exterior appearance is more than acceptable,and even internally,the book is also in a near exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation - pp335/6 with a pair of oblique-angled accidental folds/creases - for a book of its age.It really is an still exceptional copy for its cleanliness and brightness. Some twenty-two first-hand narratives,from British and American sources,of naval life and death in the French Revolutionary War,the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.Though some are extracts from memoirs written many years after the events described,others stem from closer to the action and so have an immediacy and freshness that sweeps away the two intervening centuries so that the reader all but feels the presence of the story-teller. Accounts by officers some to achieve yet higher rank,such as Cochrane and Porter,alternate with less-polished descriptions from the lower deck, some frank in the extreme,particularly as to scrapes ashore.Of particular interest is Surgeon William Beatty's account of Trafalgar and of the death of Nelson,which is often referred to in other texts but is quoted here in full - even today,it is impossible to read it without emotion. Every aspect of the naval officer's and seaman's life,whether afloat or ashore,is covered here,but a consistent theme throughout is the cheerful courage,camaraderie,humanity and sense of honour in the face of unrelenting hardship and adversity that characterised all levels in the service.Devotees of the naval fiction of Forrester, Kent, Pope and O'Brian may on occasion wonder whether the reality can have been as consistently violent and hazardous as their novels portray but this volume confirms that if they err,it is on the side of moderation. William Henry Dillon's view of the Glorious First of June from the gun-deck of HMS Defence and Samuel Leech's account of the HMS Macedonian vs. USS United States duel are as grim and blood-spattered as anything in such fiction. Please contact seller for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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