MACLEAN, Alistair. H.M.S. Ulysses.
Collins, London, 1955.
First edition, first impression. Signed by Alistair MacLean in blue ink on the title page.
Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt; 320 pages; front endpapers printed with a map tracing Convoy FR77 through the Arctic seas to Murmansk, rear endpapers with a detailed diagrammatic drawing of H.M.S. Ulysses. In the original pictorial dust jacket designed by John Rose, retaining the 12s. 6d. net price.
MacLean’s first novel drew directly upon his wartime service in the Royal Navy and his experience of the Arctic convoys. The fictional cruiser Ulysses and her exhausted crew are sent on a final convoy voyage through appalling weather, enemy attack and relentless physical strain. Its combination of technical realism, bleak atmosphere and extraordinary tension established MacLean immediately as a major writer of post-war adventure fiction and launched a career that would include The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare.
Loosely inserted is the original note reading: “Sent on instructions of Miss Jane Watson ‘with best wishes for a quick recovery’”, followed by “With the Compliments of Messrs. John B. Wylie & Co., Ltd., 430 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, C.2.”
The book is near fine. The unrestored dust jacket is near fine, with light wear at the extremities and spotting to the rear panel. An excellent example of MacLean’s most important title.
