The Great Escape
( Ley KENYON, illus. ) BRICKHILL, Paul
With Drawings by Ley Kenyon.
'TO THE FIFTY'. NEAR FINE COPY IN UNCLIPPED DUSTWRAPPER
Published: Faber, [1951]
Stock code: 45639
Price: £740.00
8vo., First Edition, with 16 plates on 8, 6 illustrations and plans (5 full-page) and full-page map in the text; salmon cloth, backstrip lettered in blue, a near fine copy in unclipped dustwrapper.
The original account of arguably the greatest POW story of WWII - the escape of no fewer than seventy-six Allied POW's from Stalag Luft III at Sagan in March 1944. Known ever since as the 'Great Escape', it was a gallant endeavour with a sordid ending, and has inspired a minor industry of research and publication, including John Sturges' immensely successful (though heavily fictionalised) feature film of 1963 starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough. For a more recent update (incorporating the latest official documentation) see Burgess's 'The Longest Tunnel' (1990). AN UNDISPUTED CLASSIC OF WWII AND VERY SCARCE INDEED IN THIS CONDITION.