Brief description:
Reviewed by I. R. Ybarra
MILITARY SCHOOL stories: the term itself seems to vibrate with echoes of the post-Civil War years. And yet this very distinct variety of action-adventure persisted right up through the 1950s, with perhaps the last of the kind having been the series of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Back around the tum of the century was the heyday of such books, however— the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was the setting for at least three hardbound-book series (not to mention innumerable magazine or story paper writings): H. Irving Hancock's West Point series-— really a sub-series that continues
adventures of heroes already delineated in his Grammar School Boys and High School Boys series. There was a second series about West Point, made up into books after appearance in Street & Smith publications (this set under the ostensible authorship of one “Lt. Frederick Garrison", who was actually Upton Sinclair).
Finally there was the West Point series penned by Capt. Paul B. Malone. One quickly notices, especially on glancing at still other military-school stories. that while it may not have been a rigid requirement, often enough the authors of such stories had (or seemed to have ) military rank. One of the sagas about Annapolis, for instance, wears the authorship of yet another Sinclair pen name, "Ensign Clarke Fitch’. Capt. Paul B. Malone, then, author of the present five-volume series about Douglas Atwell’s adventures before, during, and after West Point, might have been another pseudonym and an invented rank— but I strongly doubt it.
[Note: Paul B. Malone was Class of 1987 and rose to the rank of Major General in World War 1]
Never having been able to finish an older military-school story before, and besides having gotten more than my fill of the military academic life through a two-year brush with the Reserve Officers Training Corps back in the mid-'60s, I shunned collecting or reading this type of tale until I happened to notice four volumes of Malone's West Point series neglected on a back shelf at a local bookstore. The binding was what drew my eye: extremely handsome dark leather and cloth with real gold stamped into cover and spine. Picking up one of the books I immediately realized that this was not original; in fact the owner of the books at one time—no doubt the one responsible for the rebinding, had had his own name stamped in gold onto the cover. His name was John William Shoemaker, and apparently he thought highly of the set, and the leather, now wor and frayed, suggested many re-readings rather than permanent quiescence on the shelf. Inside were real marbled end papers; the page-tops were gilded, and every single book was signed and dedicated by the author: Kindest regards & Merry Christ- mas to Baby Shoemaker, Capt. Paul B. Malone, U. S. Anny.
Books that someone once liked, almost beg to be read; so I found myself a little later walking out of the store with the four books: A Plebe at West Point, A West Point Yearling, A West Point Cadet, and A West Point Lieutenant. Within a few days I was back, searching for the missing volume number one, Winning His Way to West Point, after reading the other four books. I’d started reading with an attitude of amused revulsion, but that quickly changed to amazement and finally to awe. Luckily I did find that book—in the same re-bound and dedicated form as the other four—, and luckier still therefore read it last instead of first as I other wise would have done ; it would, I think,have discouraged a reading of the whole series. [However] unique action, character development, and poignancy filled this perceptive saga......
MILITARY SCHOOL stories: the term itself seems to vibrate with echoes of the post-Civil War years. And yet this very distinct variety of action-adventure persisted right up through the 1950s, with perhaps the last of the kind having been the series of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Back around the tum of the century was the heyday of such books, however— the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was the setting for at least three hardbound-book series (not to mention innumerable magazine or story paper writings): H. Irving Hancock's West Point series-— really a sub-series that continues
adventures of heroes already delineated in his Grammar School Boys and High School Boys series. There was a second series about West Point, made up into books after appearance in Street & Smith publications (this set under the ostensible authorship of one “Lt. Frederick Garrison", who was actually Upton Sinclair).
Finally there was the West Point series penned by Capt. Paul B. Malone. One quickly notices, especially on glancing at still other military-school stories. that while it may not have been a rigid requirement, often enough the authors of such stories had (or seemed to have ) military rank. One of the sagas about Annapolis, for instance, wears the authorship of yet another Sinclair pen name, "Ensign Clarke Fitch’. Capt. Paul B. Malone, then, author of the present five-volume series about Douglas Atwell’s adventures before, during, and after West Point, might have been another pseudonym and an invented rank— but I strongly doubt it.
[Note: Paul B. Malone was Class of 1987 and rose to the rank of Major General in World War 1]
Never having been able to finish an older military-school story before, and besides having gotten more than my fill of the military academic life through a two-year brush with the Reserve Officers Training Corps back in the mid-'60s, I shunned collecting or reading this type of tale until I happened to notice four volumes of Malone's West Point series neglected on a back shelf at a local bookstore. The binding was what drew my eye: extremely handsome dark leather and cloth with real gold stamped into cover and spine. Picking up one of the books I immediately realized that this was not original; in fact the owner of the books at one time—no doubt the one responsible for the rebinding, had had his own name stamped in gold onto the cover. His name was John William Shoemaker, and apparently he thought highly of the set, and the leather, now wor and frayed, suggested many re-readings rather than permanent quiescence on the shelf. Inside were real marbled end papers; the page-tops were gilded, and every single book was signed and dedicated by the author: Kindest regards & Merry Christ- mas to Baby Shoemaker, Capt. Paul B. Malone, U. S. Anny.
Books that someone once liked, almost beg to be read; so I found myself a little later walking out of the store with the four books: A Plebe at West Point, A West Point Yearling, A West Point Cadet, and A West Point Lieutenant. Within a few days I was back, searching for the missing volume number one, Winning His Way to West Point, after reading the other four books. I’d started reading with an attitude of amused revulsion, but that quickly changed to amazement and finally to awe. Luckily I did find that book—in the same re-bound and dedicated form as the other four—, and luckier still therefore read it last instead of first as I other wise would have done ; it would, I think,have discouraged a reading of the whole series. [However] unique action, character development, and poignancy filled this perceptive saga......
Publication
Mystery and Adventure Series Review, Tucson AZ