GEORGE C. MARSHALL by Pogue, Forrest C - 1963

New York: The Viking Press, 1963. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Four volumes: Education of a General, 1880-1939; Ordeal and Hope, 1939-1942; Organizer of Victory, 1943-1945; [and] Statesman, 1945-1949. Epic biography of George C. Marshall (1880-1959), the Army Chief of Staff in World War II and later Secretary of State. Pogue was a pioneer in the oral interview technique of gathering and writing military history, a practice he began as an Army combat historian in conversations with wounded servicemen aboard ship off the coast of Normandy following the D-Day invasion in 1944. For this week, he recorded some 40 hours of interviews with Marshall himself and encounters with more than 300 people who had known the general, many of them prominent figures themselves. Inscribed by Pogue on the half-title in the third volume. Octavo. The front hinge of the first volume is cracked after the half-title; the binding is still sound. Previous owner's ink signature to the front flyleaf in the third volume, with a bookseller's label to the rear pastedown in the second volume. Minor bump to the top corner of the rear board of the fourth volume. The dust jackets are price-clipped, with some mild edgewear, including a closed tear and the unobtrusive vestiges of a few old tape repairs to the spine head of the first volume; otherwise a very good set. Housed in a George C. Marshall Research Foundation slipcase.