The Execution of Private Slovik
New York, (1954): Duell, Sloan and Pearce. First Edition. Octavo. Item #027159
247 pages. The story of the only American soldier since 1864 to be shot for desertion although thousands have been tried and convicted for desertion from the Civil War to the Korean War. During the second world war alone an estimated 40,000 soldiers were tried for desertion, forty-nine were severe enough to be approved for the death sentence and were commuted but this is the one exception. It is strange that if he were being made an example of then why did the army put the case under wraps for eight years until the author of this volume brought much of it to light. It is now believed that no one in the process thought the death by firing squad would actually not be stopped but at the very last there was no one to countermand the order and hence the famous case became a study of the miscarriage of military justice. Bound in red cloth, spine lettering black, in unclipped pictorial dust jacket showing only minor light wear along edges of jacket.
Price: $85.00