Peleliu Landing by Lea, Tom - 1945

El Paso: Carl Hertzog, 1945. Signed limited first edition. First edition, one of 500 numbered copies signed by Tom Lea on the limitation page. [iv], 34 pp. 10 full-page plates after drawings by Lea. Bound in Marine Corps green herringbone cloth, pictorial endpapers from a photograph by Lea. With the eight-page Life magazine color insert laid-in, as called for, housed in envelope. Toning to cloth, else Near Fine with a hint of mustiness. Lea was an artist for Life who went to record the Pacific theater of combat during WWII. But, he writes, "On the beach I found it impossible to do any sketching or writing; my work there consisted of trying to keep from getting killed and trying to memorize what I saw and felt under fire." He was present for the first 32 hours of the Marines' assault on Peleliu Island. His text and sketches brilliantly capture the terror and shock experienced by the Marines in those first few critical hours. From Wikipedia's article on the landing, "In the US, [The Battle of Peleliu]… Read More