PRINCIPLES OF STRATEGY WITH HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. By Colonel William K. Naylor, General Staff. Director of the General Staff School / The General Service Schools. INSCRIBED BY COLONEL NAYLOR. [Together with]: A TYPED LETTER SIGNED from Naylor to Lincoln MacVeagh.

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: The General Service Schools Press, 1921., 1921.. Good. FIRST EDITION INSCRIBED & SIGNED BY COLONEL NAYLOR AND WITH A SIGNED LETTER BY HIM TO CAPTAIN, AND LATER U.S. AMBASSADOR LINCOLN MACVEAGH - Octavo, 9 inches high by 6 inches wide. Hardcover, bound in green cloth backed with a black leather spine, titled in gilt between gilt rules on the spine. The covers are bumped & rubbed and the leather is split and heavily chipped along the front joint. 367, [1] & xi pages. There is some light foxing to the front and rear blank leaves and staining with indentations from a paper clip to the top edges of the front endpaper and blank leaf. Good.

Together with typed letter of more than 200 words signed "W.K. Naylor". The July 20, 1919 letter from Camp Grant, Illinois addressed to Lincoln MacVeagh c/o Henry Holt & Company is in response to a letter Naylor received from MacVeagh. Naylor complains "I am still hanging on to my 'B.G.' job, but have been informed that I will be busted on August 31st. I have been detailed to take the course at the General Staff College in Washington. I thought I was enough educated at the present time". He says that he will send MacVeagh a copy of the "Upton book" once he has unpacked his personal library and promises that he will visit him in New York. The letter is folded horizontally and vertically for mailing with some offsetting to the top edge, light creases to the edges, a tiny red stain to the bottom left corner and indentations from a paper clip to the edges.

First edition of the textbook that was adopted officially by the Japanese. Inscribed by the author to Lincoln MacVeagh in the year of publication. "To Capt Lincoln McVeagh [sic] from the author / W.K. Naylor / Col. G.S. / 23 May '21 Fort Crook Neb."

Brigadier General William Keith Naylor (1874-1942) was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal in 1919 for actions during World War I. The citation reads: "The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Brigadier General William K. Naylor, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. While Chief of Staff of the 33d Division, General Naylor exhibited conspicuous ability in the operations north of Verdun, France, in September and October 1918. He frequently visited the front-line positions under heavy enemy artillery fire, and by his personal efforts and skillful dispositions was in a large measure responsible for the successes gained."

From the library of Lincoln MacVeagh and his wife Margaret with their "Arcades Ambo" bookplate on the front paste down. Lincoln MacVeagh (1890-1972), a Renaissance man, graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in 1913. He went on to study languages at the Sorbonne and became fluent in German, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Classical Greek. After World War I he became a director of the Henry Holt and Company publishing firm where he became friendly with the poet Robert Frost. In 1923 he left the firm and founded the Dial Press. His name appears on the imprint of many of their publications. In 1933 President Roosevelt appointed him Minister to Greece. He followed presentation of his credentials with a speech in Classical Greek. While in Greece he conducted excavations beneath the Acropolis and made archeological contributions to the National Museum in Athens. He left Greece in 1941 when the German army over ran the country. From there he was appointed the first US Minister to Iceland where he negotiated agreements for the construction of the Keflavik airfield. In late 1942 he became Minister to the Union of South Africa and coordinated American wartime agencies there. In 1943 he was sent to Cairo as Ambassador so that he could assist the governments in exile of Greece and Yugoslavia. He returned to Athens as Ambassador in 1944. MacVeagh gave secret testimony before Congress concerning the Balkans in 1947, testimony that was an important factor in the formation of the Truman Doctrine. In 1948 as Ambassador to Portugal MacVeagh was influential in admitting her into NATO. In 1952 President Truman named him Ambassador to Spain. President Truman wrote to him on March 9, 1948: "On the occasion of your appointment as Ambassador to Portugal, I would like to make some personal expression of appreciation for the high services you have already rendered your country. During the past fifteen critical years you have served with distinction as Chief of the United states Missions to Iceland, the Union of South Africa, Yugoslavia and Greece. In this last post especially - as Minister from 1933 to 1941 and as Ambassador since 1943 - your scholarly statesmanship and diplomatic judgment have been of the utmost value."