The Man Who Never Was

First US edition, first printing.  160pp.  Quarter bound in black cloth over yellow paper-covered boards, gilt lettering to spine.  8vo.  Boards are a little worn, rubbed all around corners and spine ends.  Upper text block and board edges dust marked, with some spotting on remaining edges.  Previous owner’s name neatly inked on the front free endpaper else internally neat, clean and tight.

Perhaps the most brilliant ruse of the Second World War, Operation Mincemeat was conceived by Ewen Montagu, and his description of the events, which read somewhat like an Eric Ambler thriller, reveals all of fascinating detail of the preparation for the hoax which saw a dead body, with a false identity and fakes messages wash up on the Spanish shore.