THE NORTH PACIFIC - A Story of the Russo-Japanese War

New York: E P Dutton and Company. Very Good+. 1905. First Edition. Hardcover. ix, (1), 325, (3) pages; Clean and secure in original pictorial dark blue cloth binding with image of a naval vessel at sea on front board and an anchor in seaweed at spine. OCLC 259971708 Owner's brief inscription on ffep: "Merry Xmas to / Coleman / From Cleveland" Illustrated with a frontispiece and 7 additional full page plates. Willis Boyd Allen (1855-1938) was born at Kittery Point, Maine in 1855. He graduated from Harvard University in 1878 and from Boston University Law School in 1881. In addition to his law practice, Allen was a prolific writer, particularly of maritime novels. He contributed many pieces to the Literary journals of the day -- Atlantic Monthly, Century, Scribner’s, Harper’s, Lippincott’s, etc. This book is set in the northern Pacific Ocean at the time of the Russo-Japanese War. The dramatic tale begins with 'The Trial of the Retvizan': "It was a clear, cool afternoon in early September, 1901. In the country the tawny hillsides were warmed to gold by the glow of the autumn sun, while here and there a maple lifted its crimson torch as if the forest were kindling where the rays were the hottest. ... Only a few miles away the air was rent by a clamour of discordant sound. Ponderous hammers beat upon plates of iron and brass; machinery rumbled and shrieked and hissed at its work; a thousand men, labouring as if for their lives, pulled, pushed, lifted, pounded, shouted orders, warnings, replies above the din that beat upon the ear like a blacksmith's blows upon an anvil. ... A vast upheaval seemed imminent. Yet the countless toilers worked securely and swiftly, fashioning that dread floating citadel of modern warfare, the Battleship." The recipient of this book John Coleman Jennings (1892 - 1978) was born in Johannesburg, where his father was a very successful mining engineer in the South African gold fields. The family moved to Washington in 1906 and Coleman Jennings remained a resident of that city thereafter. He graduated from Harvard College and spent two years at Harvard Law School before being commissioned in the Army in World War I. During the war, he served in France and later was an aide to President Woodrow Wilson at the Versailles Peace Conference. In 1920 he succeeded his father Hennen Jennings as a director of The Alabama Company (incorporated 1913, successor to Alabama Consolidated Coal & Iron Co. and Alabama Company General Gold). From 1920 to 1928 he was an assistant manager in the Washington office of the National City Company, an investment banking house founded in 1845 and once one of the ten largest banks in America. In 1928, Jennings gave up his business career to devote his life to philanthropic endeavors. By that time he already had served five years as president of the old Family Service Association in Washington and had become engaged in youth work. During a year of study at the University of Edinburgh, he organized a social club in a poor section of the city. The organization was still in operation at the time of Jennings death - fifty years after he inaugurated the program. From 1929 to 1932 he was associate volunteer of college work for the National Council of the Episcopal Church. In the 1930s and 1940s, he served as president of the old Washington Community Chest, which became the United Way. He also was chairman of the Community War Chest campaigns in Washington during World War II, a trustee of the Boys' Club and chairman of the Service Commission of the Federation of Churches. .