From Here to Eternity.

JONES, James.

Item Number: 5086

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951.

First edition. Octavo, original cloth. His first book, one of the great novels of World War II. Winner of the National Book Award and the basis for a film that won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to Peter Matthiessen: “For Peter ── You’ve saved this longer than I have. With Love, Jim James Jones.” Also with Peter Matthiessen’s printed ownership signature above the inscription. There was a signed limited issue of this title comprising 1500 copies, but signed copies of the trade edition are far scarcer. A bulky book, usually found in inferior condition, this copy is a good example: cloth mottled and a chip to the crown of the spine in a very good dust jacket. One section is marked by Matthiessen: pp. 218-219, in which Jones describes the playing of Taps. Marked with a bracket, two arrows, and a check mark, and with a feather laid in marking the page.

From Here to Eternity is a commanding novel of the soldiers who were poised on the brink of real manhood when World War II flung them unceremoniously into that abyss. It follows Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt a nonconformist hero who refuses to box at Schofield Barracks and is slowly destroyed by his own rebelliousness. Around him, others are fighing their own small battles--and losing. The title comes originally from a quote from Rudyard Kipling's 1892 poem "Gentlemen-Rankers", about soldiers of the British Empire who had "lost [their] way" and were "damned from here to eternity." “Extraordinary and utterly irresistible . . . a compelling and compassionate story" (Los Angeles Times). Basis for the 1953 film directed by Fred Zinneman starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra. It went on to win eight Academy Awards, including for best picture, director, adapted screenplay, supporting actor (Sinatra) and Supporting Actress (Donna Reed).