Operation Heartbreak, a story by Duff Cooper - 1959

London: Rupert Hart-Davis. 1950. Octavo Size [approx 15.5 x 22.8cm]. Very Good condition in Very Good Dustjacket. DJ protected in our purpose-made clear archival plastic sleeve. Previous owner's details to front free end paper. Light wear to dustjacket edges and corners. 166 pages. Robust, professional packaging and tracking provided for all parcels. . 4th impression. Hardback.

Hart-Davis,, 1950. 8vo., Third Impression, free endpapers lightly browned; original black buckram, gilt back, a very good, bright, clean copy. Published a month after the first edition. The novel that exposed Operation MINCEMEAT, arguably the most famous strategic deception of WWII and a closely guarded secret until the appearance of this tale. A sharp-eyed journalist, Ian Colvin, was intrigued by Cooper's unlikely plot and linked it to a footnote in a book by General Westphal, formerly Kesselring's Chief of Staff. The result of his researches was The Unknown Courier (1953), a piece of investigative journalism so close to the truth that the authorities had little choice but to allow Ewan Montagu (MINCEMEAT'S conceiver and organiser), to relate the story (almost) in full in 'The Man Who Never Was' (1953).

Hart-Davis,, 1950. 8vo., Second Impression, some mild offsetting from fold-ins to free endpapers, neat contemporary signature on front free endpaper; black buckram, gilt back, a bright, clean, crisp copy in unclipped, mildly browned dustwrapper chipped at extremities. Published in the same month as the first edition. The novel that exposed Operation MINCEMEAT, arguably the most famous strategic deception of WWII and a closely guarded secret until the appearance of this tale. A sharp-eyed journalist, Ian Colvin, was intrigued by Cooper's unlikely plot and linked it to a footnote in a book by General Westphal, formerly Kesselring's Chief of Staff. The result of his researches was The Unknown Courier (1953), a piece of investigative journalism so close to the truth that the authorities had little choice but to allow Ewan Montagu (MINCEMEAT'S conceiver and organiser), to relate the story (almost) in full in 'The Man Who Never Was' (1953). THE ORIGINAL EDITION IS SCARCE IN THIS CONDITION.