MAJOR EDWARD V. "EDDIE" RICKENBACKER - INSCRIBED BOOK SIGNED 1943 - HFSID 9688

EDDIE RICKENBACKER
The story of the WWI hero's survival at sea during WWII.
Book inscribed and signed: "To my good friend/'Cole Younger'/With my every best wish/Capt Eddie Rickenbacker/1943" on the first blank flyleaf. His book, Seven Came Through, 134p, 5¾x8, hardcover. Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., Garden City, New York: 1943. First Edition. From the jacket notes: "No more gallant saga of the sea, no more thrilling record of achievement in the air has ever been presented to the American public than Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker's own story of the twenty-one harrowing days which he and his companions spent adrift on the Pacific...SEVEN CAME THROUGH is a simple story, as all accounts of the elemental heroism of fighting men are...it will become for all of us a symbol of the indomitable will to win, the stamina and fundamental courage of all those who serve, whether under a hot Pacific sun or on the cold waters of the Atlantic." This book also includes Rickenbacker's "Message to America" regarding the importance of military airpower. Royalties from the book were earmarked for the Army Air Forces Aid Society Trust Fund (detailed on the back jacket cover), and Rickenbacker's further commitment to U.S. victory in WWII is evidenced on the inside dust jacket, which encourages the purchase of war bonds and stamps as well as a program for forwarding the book to the U.S.O. for distribution to servicemen. Rickenbacker, America's leading ace during WWI, was President of Eastern Airlines (from 1938) when Secretary of War Henry Stimson asked him to inspect Air Force bases in the Pacific during WWII. On the mission, Rickenbacker's plane became lost and ran out of fuel. After a crash landing in the Pacific, he and the other survivors spent three weeks on life rafts before being rescued. This book details the story of their survival. In original dust jacket, which is creased and chipped at edges. Signature page is lightly shaded, pencil note (unknown hand) at upper left corner. Book is internally sound.