| Through the Perilous Night - the Astoria's last battle, by Joe James Custer
(1944)
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| Front Cover |
Book Details |
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| Genre |
Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
USS Astoria (Cruiser); World War, 1939-1945 - Personal narratives, American |
| Publication Date |
1944 |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Publisher |
Macmillan |
| Language |
English |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
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| Personal Details |
| Store |
AbeBooks |
| Purchase Price |
$33.99 |
| Acquire Date |
11/11/2014 |
| Condition |
Very Good/Very Good |
| Rating |
0 |
| Links |
Library of Congress
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| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
D811.5 .C88 |
| Dewey |
940.548173 |
| Edition |
[1st ed.] |
| Cover Price |
$2.75 |
| No. of Pages |
243 |
| First Edition |
Yes |
| Rare |
No |
|
| Notes/Review |
New York: Macmillan, 1944. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good +/very good +. 8vo. Full grey cloth, red title lettering to spine. In original illustrated dust jacket. Interior front flap clipped at corners, though price intact. Jacket with light shelf wear, wrinkling at spine extremities, mild toning to rear edges, overall clean, attractive. Cloth lightly worn at spine ends, though square, tight. Outer page edge moderately foxed, interior with occasional, scant bits of foxing. A well preserved, wartime, first printing, in jacket, of the account of Custer, a United Press war correspondent, of the Battle of Savo Island. 243pp.
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Joe James Custer was a sports reporter in Honolulu on December 7, 1941. With the outbreak of war, he became a war correspondent for the United Press. In that capacity, he sailed on the Enterprise for an attack on Wake Island, then on the destroyer Benham for the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. But the heart of the book is his time on the cruiser Astoria, which fought and was sunk in the Battle of Savo Island just off Guadalcanal.
In many ways, this book is very similar to other WWII books by correspondents - travelogues full of second and third hand tales, typically just a few paragraphs. The reporter goes here, then there, then the next place, talking to soldiers, sailors, and pilots. This one, though, is less travelogue and more of a personal story. Those other books are about where the reporter went and what happened to the people he met. This one has that, but is also about what happened to Custer.
I think it is very well written, with very little of the jingoism common to other books of its type. Custer is a keen observer and gives vivid descriptions of what he saw, heard, and felt.
Highly recommended. |
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