Product Type
Condition
Binding
Collectible Attributes
Seller Location
Seller Rating
Published by The Men of the Eighteenth Engineers Railway, U.S. Army, France, 1918
Seller: Barry Cassidy Rare Books, Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.
Book
Soft cover. Condition: Collectible-Very Good. Original publisher's beige wrappers with staple binding. Cartoon by Breton on front cover showing an American soldier asking a parrot, "Polly voo francais?" Back cover features a full-page illustration of a scenic landscape with an accompanying poem, "The Old Chateau," by Jack Burroughs. 9" x 12." Twenty-four pages, complete. Black and white illustrations throughout magazine, complete. Most of the illustrations are by two artists signing as "Breton" and "Patsy Carroll." Not price-clipped. The original price is listed as one franc. Pages and covers are very clean and intact. Fold lines and slight wrinkling. Small bit of foxing on a few pages. Lower-right corner of the pages are dog-eared (corner folds do not affect text or images). The Spiker was published monthly during World War I and claimed to be the first magazine published and printed by an American military unit serving in France. Each issue contains material about World War I that gives a snapshot of life on the front and ranges in tone from serious to satirical. For example, there are current news stories reported from the different military companies and tributes paid to U.S. soldiers and other military service members, but there are also satirical songs, jokes, stories, and political cartoons. The relations between American and French soldiers are mentioned as well, such as some difficulties arising from the language barrier, general interactions between the soldiers, and the American soldiers' impressions of France while abroad.