Salt Winds and Gobi Dust

New York/London: Charles Scribner's Sons. Near Fine. 1934. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [a nice-looking copy, slight darkening to the spine but no significant shelfwear]. (pen and ink drawings) Stories of adventure in exotic lands, by this career military man -- he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1917 and never left, eventually rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and also established a nice little parallel career as writer and illustrator, mostly for the better class of magazines (Cosmopolitan, The Saturday Evening Post, etc.). This book contains thirteen tales, at least some of which had been previously published, and 34 full-page illustrations. Interestingly, a number of the stories bear individual dedications, mostly to either military comrades or to women -- one of the latter being noted illustrator Neysa McMein, who herself had been named an honorary non-commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps for her contributions to the war effort during World War I. .