Calculated Risk.

First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "To Brig. Gen. Rollin Tilton, with deep appreciation of our long friendship & with the devotion of Mark Wayne Clark. Dec. 15, 1950". Brigadier General Rollin Tilton (1888-1977) commanded the Chesapeake Bay sector of the North Atlantic Coastal Frontier during the Second World War, capping a 38-year military career. Mark W. Clark was one of the youngest American officers promoted to the rank of four-star general. This is his account of the war in the Mediterranean, in which he played a central role. "General Clark's personal account of his command, of the fighting in North Africa and Italy, is probably the frankest and most controversial book of the war. Dealing with crucial events of the war and immediate postwar period, it has the breathless quality of a great story of adventure. It is also one of the half-dozen essential books of the war, for nowhere else has the full story of the campaign against the 'soft underbelly' of the Axis been told" (jacket). Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Contents toned; unclipped jacket worn at extremities: a very good copy in good jacket.…