World without Heroes

New York/London/Toronto: Whittlesey House / McGraw-Hill Book Company. Very Good in Good dj. (c.1950). First Edition. Hardcover. (price-clipped) [moderate shelfwear to bottom edges of covers, light soiling to edges of text block; jacket has a number of small tears and chips, 3-inch split along top front foldover, a bit of paper loss at top of spine]. Scarce novel about the psychological effects of war on the men who fight it. Set during the last days of World War II in Europe, as Allied troops close in on Berlin, the action centers around one American rifle squad that goes off the rails: "Shattered by German artillery, crazed with rage at the elusive Nazis who hit, run, and surrender, these ordinary American boys unleash their frenzy on an empty town -- burning, looting, destroying, and finally, killing in cold blood." (Sounds a bit like a precursor to the My Lai Massacre, doesn't it?) This was the author's first and only novel; a native of New York, he suffered a wound during service with the Infantry in Europe during World War II that rendered him a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. After the war, he went into the publishing business and served in editorial or executive posts at several major publishers prior to his death in 1974. .