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Franks, Lucinda : My Father's Secret War: A Memoir

Hyperion/Miramax Books, New York City, NY, 2007

ISBN 140135226X

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 312 pages. The author's debut memoir. Now considered a contemporary classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Lucinda Franks' "My Father's Secret War: A Memoir". Published to enormous critical acclaim by such figures as Elie Wiesel, Joyce Carol Oates, Susan Cheever, and Patricia Bosworth, great memoir-writers all. Lucinda Franks is an award-winning writer who is married to Robert Morgenthau, the New York County District Attorney. When her father was diagnosed with and realized that he was slipping into incurable dementia, he decided to tell his daughter everything about the part of his life he had kept hidden from everyone, especially his own family. Lucinda Franks knew little about her father's activities during the Second World War so she never suspected his simply stunning revelation: He was a spy who risked his life behind enemy lines, in the guise of an utterly convincing SS Officer, who was nevertheless vulnerable and could have been caught if he ever let his guard down even once. Hence his lifelong secretiveness. As an SS Officer, he was among the very first Americans to see the Nazi concentration camps, a horrifying discovery that he could not prevent, which made him bitter about himself and humanity for the rest of his life. His bitterness essentially destroyed his relations with his family, an estrangement that was belatedly healed by his heartbreaking story, revealed just before they lost him again, this time for good, to madness. A journalist by profession, Lucinda Franks presents military intelligence records and documentation that verify his profoundly personal account but could never render justice to the suffering he endured all his life. The result is a book that is "worthy of Graham Greene" (Joyce Carol Oates). "This is the real story of The Greatest Generation, adding immeasurably to our understanding of who our fathers were and what they survived. It should be read by everyone who cares about history, not the history of textbooks, but the history of what really happened to the men who lived it" (Susan Cheever). An absolute "must-have" title for Lucinda Franks collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Lucinda Franks. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Lucinda Franks is the very first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her National Reporting at The New York Times, where she spent her entire career as a journalist. One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. . ISBN 140135226X.

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