The West Point Series written by Paul B. Malone and published by Penn Publishing Company is a 5 book series that chronicles the adventures of Douglas Atwell at West Point. This series was initially published between 1904 and 1911 and then was reprinted numerous times. In fact the books are still listed in a 1939 Penn catalogue. I suspect that they still were being published up until Penn went out of business in 1941.(A quick aside: I was at West Point two months ago at the outdoor Patriot League track championships. It is an unbelievably spectacular campus. The track is right on the Hudson River and is very impressive. I include a picture. By the way, my daughter, who is a freshman and runs for Lehigh, finished third in the 1500 meter race.)
About the author. Malone was born in 1872 in Middletown, New York and graduated from West Point in 1894. He became a captain a 1901 and was promoted to Major in 1916. He was appointed Brigadier General in 1918.
His career highlights include being in command of the fifth division during the offensive at St. Mihiel in 1918. He also served in the Philippines during the Santiago Campaign between 1899-1901. He taught chemistry at West Point between 1901-1905. He received the Distinguished Service Medal for his service during World War I. ( The Fifth U.S. Division in the World War 1917-1919, The Society of the Fifth Division, 1919).
Basically the evolution of the editions of the five books is typical of most early Penn Publishing Company Series. The earliest editions have very attractive cloth covers with gold gilt supplementing the line drawn design as well as line drawn end paper illustrations. The earliest covers are all different with dust jackets that match the book covers. It appears that the designs were done by the "Decorative Designers". Later the book covers were the same for each book as were the jackets. The spine logo of the company changed in 1906 from a script TPPCo. to interlocking P's. Thus the earliest editions of books #1 and #2 have the script logo. Each book has multiple glossy illustrations done by F.A. Carter.
Later editions eliminated the gold gilt on the cover and the spine writing was black not white. The cover picture in later editions was the same for all the books.
Note that Malone's name changed during this series run.. The early books have him listed as a Captain whereas the later books list him as a Major-General.
This is a later Dust jacket. Note that the author's name is preceded by his later rank of Major General which he received in 1918.The West Point Series by Paul Malone
1.Winning His Way to West Point 1904
2. A Plebe at West Point 1905
3. A West Point Yearling 1907
4. A West Point Cadet 1908
5. A West Point Lieutenant 1911
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I have a copy of A Plebe at West Point with the white lettering. Any idea of how to sell? jeff.bevan@sbcglobal.net
ReplyDeleteHello...I have a copy of the original 1907 release of "A West Point Yearling", by Captain Paul B. Malone, U.S. Army. It was given to me to appraise for a customer / friend, but the first page (inevitably the one that contains all of the copyright info) is ripped out and a couple of the other pages have been scribbled on, most likely by a child. There is some wear along the edges of the hardcover on it. Otherwise, the book is in exceptional shape (I would have to rate the condition as being good to acceptable), being that the binding is still well intact, the print on the binding still legible in white, as is the front (in black).
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