Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of The Pacific War, Manchester, William. Published by Little, Brown & Co. Boston, Toronto, 1980. Stated First Edition with unpriced dustjacket and indention stamp rear board suggesting this is a Book Club Edition. 8vo up to 9½” tall., 401pp. Quarter navy blue over beige boards; endpapers are illustrated with maps and timeline of the Pacific war. Contents are mint condition with light shelf wear to unclipped jacket.
The nightmares began for William Manchester 23 years after WW II. In his dreams he lived with the recurring image of a battle-weary youth (himself), “angrily demanding to know what had happened to the three decades since he had laid down his arms.” To find out, Manchester visited those places in the Pacific where as a young Marine he fought the Japanese, and in this book examines his experiences in the line with his fellow soldiers (his “brothers”). He gives us an honest and unabashedly emotional account of his part in the war in the Pacific.
William Manchester was a hugely successful popular historian and biographer whose books include The Last Lion, Volumes 1 and 2, Goodbye Darkness, A World Lit Only by Fire, The Glory and the Dream, The Arms of Krupp, American Caesar, The Death of the President, and assorted works of journalism.
