HELL IN THE FOREIGN LEGION. (TRANSLATION OF "AFRIKA WEINT".) by Lohndorff, Ernst F. Translated by Gerard Shelley - 1932

New York: Greenberg, 1932. 349 pp, 7 7/8" H. Brown cloth with dark brown lettering/emblem on spine. "In writing the account of my life as a member of the French Foreign Legion, I am aided partly by memory and partly by the blurred and faded scraps of paper which I carried about with me in the Sahara and the Atlas Mountains. I have no intention of perpetrating one of the usual tirades against France, for I have been all over the world and have friends of every nation. My reminiscences serve rather as an accusation against the conscience of the world and the League of Nations that such a thing as a Foreign Legion should still exist at all. How did I enter the Legion? As a volunteer like everybody else. No, I really was not dazed or besotted by the legendary agents of France who are supposed to menace the safety of Germany - I went of my own accord! - Unemployment, desire for warmth, bread, and a woman brought me to the Legion. I ran away several time before I succeeded in escaping from that part of Africa where the soil is saturated with the sweat, blood, and unavailing tears of tens of thousands of men - In one garrison life may be tolerable for a soldier who demands no luxury, because the men in command are human - But in another it may be hell on earth and the officers and subordinates like laughing devils poking the flames! My time in the Legion is engraved indelibly upon my brain. Luck, and courage born of despair, or Allah, the mysterious God of the desert, have saved me. Now let me tell you how it began- " From the Introduction. Ernst Lohndorff (1899-1976) was a German sailor/adventurer/author. He signed up with the Foreign Legion in 1920 under an assumed name, but appears to have deserted from Algeria after two months. This volume, although written in an autobiographical style, is almost certainly a combination of his own experiences and the fiction for which he was popular before the Second World War. Previous owner's small name stamp on front pastedown, light browning to endpapers, very light browning to pages, light to moderate edge wear - mainly at top/bottom of spine and at corners, book is slightly cocked, browning to edges of text block, very small stain on fore-edge of text block, light rubbing/soiling and a few very faint liquid marks.. Not Signed. First American Edition. Hard Cover. Good.