The Man Who Never Was
MONTAGU, Ewen
With a Foreword by Lord Ismay.
BRIGHT, CLEAN COPY IN DUSTWRAPPER
Published: Evans Brothers, [1953]
Stock code: 48907
Price: £230.00
8vo., First Edition, with 31 plates on 24 and endpaper maps, some light offsetting from fold-ins to free endpapers, neat contemporary inscription on half-title; original navy blue cloth, gilt back, top and fore-edge lightly spotted else a very good, bright, clean copy in price-clipped, mildly browned dustwrapper.
With two relevant cuttings loosely inserted. Arguably the most famous strategic deception of WWII, Operation MINCEMEAT remained a closely guarded secret until the publication of Duff Cooper's novel Operation Heartbreak in 1950. A sharp-eyed journalist, Ian Colvin, was intrigued by the plot and linked it to a footnote in a book by General Westphal, formerly Kesselring's Chief of Staff. The result of his researches was The Unknown Courier (1953), a piece of investigative journalism so close to the truth that the authorities had little choice but to allow Montagu (MINCEMEAT's organiser), to relate the story (almost) in full. THE ORIGINAL EDITION IS VERY SCARCE IN THIS CONDITION. Enser, p.399; Law 0825.