The Absolute Truth

N.p., n.d., s.i.. Octavo (23cm). Printed buff wrappers; [32]pp (all halftone photographic reproductions). Mild external creasing and soil; pencil note to front cover ("from Leslie / Sept 11th 1932"); another faint pencil annotation to rear wrapper, indecipherable; else clean and unmarked, Very Good.

Reproduces thirty official U.S. War Department and Signal Corps photographs, all being battlefield photos of atrocities from the European theatre in WW1. Most are extremely graphic images of dead and mutilated soldiers, the only text being brief captions providing sardonic commentary: "Abandoned;" "Decapitated;" "Asphyxiated;" "Where Children Played;" "The Price They Paid," etc. Issued without date or attribution (nor has our research uncovered any definitive bibliographical data), but the pamphlet was clearly intended to generate anti-war sentiment. Date uncertain; most OCLC records suggest a 1920s date, but we suspect the pamphlet was issued later, probably around the penciled date on front cover, to discourage further American entanglements in the European conflict then just predictable on the far horizon.