Frederic Manning written neatly in ink under author private 19022



Published in London, by Peter Davies. 1930, First. 8vo, grey cloth with design of Death standing just behind a soldier. 453 pages.

A first impression of the first edition, printed in January 1930. A record of experience on the Somme and Ancre fronts, with an interval behind the lines, during the latter half of the year 1916, written by Frederick Manning under the name of "Private 19022".

Manning enlisted in 1915 as a private in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, serving in France. He was promoted second lieutenant on 30th May 1917 in the Royal Irish Regiment, but resigned his commission. Itt was his experiences during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 that were to provide the material for Her Privates We, dealing with the horrors of life in the trenches. The book had such an impact on the public conscience that it has never been out of print since it was first published, and it was highly praised by the literary figures of the day, including T E Lawrence, who had won fame as Lawrence of Arabia after leading the Arab revolt in the Middle East, and they became firm friends.



In the book, there is a sequence where the men discuss the reasons for their being in the war, complete with the swearing one might reasonably expect to have happened on such an occasion - then or now. Ernest Hemingway called this "the finest and noblest book of men in war that I have ever read". The book draws to its conclusion with the awful inevitability that many must have experienced. If you want to know what war for the infantry was like, then this book will tell you.