THIS BOOK HAS BEEN SOLD
COMPANY K
William March (Campbell)
Harrison Smith & Robert
Haas, 1933. VG, 3rd Printing, no dust jacket. Black lettering &
decoration on smooth blue boards. Appears to be a cheaper reprint, pos
sible
a bookclub edition, of the true Smith & Haas edition, which had green
buckram-covered boards and heavier paper; hence this copy is priced accordingly.
260 pp. An unusual novel, much acclaimed in its day. The author was a highly
decorated (Croix de Guerre, Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross) sergeant
of Marines who served with the 4th Brigade of Marines (Co F, 2nd Bttn,
5th Marines), 2nd Division, AEF, in WWI. Sgt Campbell served in all major
engagements of the Brigade, including Belleau Wood and Blanc Mont, &
was both gassed & wounded. Company K, arranged after the manner
of Spoon River Anthology, presents brief consecutive soliloquies
by 113 members of a Marine Corps rifle company in WWI, most of them characterized
by a morbid wit and a tone of bleak resignation. Excerpt: "Private
Martin Dailey ~'I awoke in a hospital train. My eyes burned and chest
ached and I could feel my leg throbbing with pain. From where I lay, I
could catch a glimpse, occasionally, of the French countryside covered
with poppies and mustard plants in bloom. I could hear the hum of voices
and the clanging of engines when we stopped, for a while, at some station
along the way. I lay back and closed my eyes again. There was a stench
of disinfectant and dried blood in the coach, and that smell which comes
from many men caged together. Above me a man talked ceaselessly of Nebraska.
His hand, hanging over his bunk, was grayish white and his nails were turning
blue. He talked softly, in a slow voice. He wanted to talk a great deal,
because he knew he was going to die before we reached the hospital. But
there was nobody to listen to him. We lay there, mostly in silence, and
thought of our own misery, like newly castrated sheep, too tired to find
comfort in curses. We stared at the ceiling dumbly, or glanced out of the
doors at the lovely countryside, now in full bloom.'" Out of Print.
$25
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