Siegfried Sassoon, Manuscripts of Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

Acquisition at auction in America of the autograph drafts of Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. The autobiographical works and war poetry of Siegfried Sassoon are recognised as being among the most influential and outstanding personal testimonies of the First World War. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, the second of a three volume 'life', describes Sassoon's experiences as a junior officer with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on the Western Front and concludes with an account of his famous public protest against the war's continuation. This collection comprises a series of heavily amended drafts that chart the progress of the book from Sassoon's earliest jottings in November 1928 to its final published form in 1930.