Above all, this is the story of a man whose courage, humor and professional detachment in the face of death were almost incredible, even to those who were privileged to know Cornelius Ryan well. It is also the story of a marriage drawn into a crucible that tested and tormented the very foundation on which it was built, and of a family torn apart by external pressures only to be united again by the tight bond of one man's will and devotion. There emerges from this account a deeply human story, a story of love, a story of heroism. Never before has the subject of cancer been written about with such frankness and in such fascinating and compelling detail.

This hidden work has enabled his wife, Kathryn Morgan Ryan, herself a distinguished novelist and a collaborator on his books, to join her words with his and produce an intimate, dramatic, moving and astonishing book. For nearly four and a half years he had kept a meticulous and totally secret account of his private battle against the disease, an account that was discovered only after his death. From the dust jacket: 'On November 23, 1974, Cornelius Ryan, the author of The Longest Day, The Last Battle and A Bridge Too Far, died of cancer. It will be fitted with a protective cover after the photos are scanned which typically improves the appearance of the jacket. The jacket is NOT price-clipped, not clipped at all. No tears, a little crinkling off the top edges. There's a little crinkling at the spine ends, a little bit off the bottom edge of the front. There are two small tan spots on the rear. The yellow of the front and rear cover has faded to white on the spine.

It has a smallish tear off the top edge of the spine, and the previous owner put a thin strip of tape over it on the unseen inside part of the jacket. You can see the dust jacket in the first few photos. Ryan's signature, no one has written their name or anything else anywhere in the book. I didn't see any conspicuous creasing, no turned-down corners or placeholder creases. I saw a bit of crinkling off the top edge of a few, quite minor. The binding seems solid, not perfect, but not a problem in any way. That isn't very conspicuous at all, quite inconspicuous actually, however the spotting at the middle page edge is very visible as you go through the pages. A little of the spotting manages to just peek over the middle edge of some of the actual pages. The middle page edge have some conspicuous, heavy spotting, the bottom edge a smaller amount.

The edges and corners look good, there's one tiny dent at the rear top edge. The gilt lettering on the spine is nicely bright. There's a small space between the top edge of the cloth at the spine and the textblock. They have some light soiling, a little off the front bottom edge and two white spots off the rear top edge. You can see the maroon covers in the photos. Flat-signed on the title page by Kathryn Morgan Ryan (see photo).

A private battle cornelius ryan