Description

The Macmillan Company [Published Date: 1966]. Hardcover, 197 pp. Macmillan Master Library Edition. Stated first printing. Good in acceptable dust jacket. Illustrated tan cloth covered boards have light scuffing to edges. Binding tight. Bottom corner of the half-title page has cut out in an attempt to remove the previous owner's "Library of.." circular blind stamps on the page. Otherwise pages are lightly aged but unmarked. Dust jacket has several 1" or less chips and tears and creasing along edges. Moderate overall scuffing and light soiling to jacket as well. Both top and bottom corners are clipped on front jacket flap. Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. Alice Jacqueline Kennedy Steffan (1907- ) was an author of books for children who published under the pseudonym Jack Steffan. [From jacket flaps] As a boy, Eamon de Valera often heard the prophecy of a great Irish saint: Ireland's salvation will come from Spain. Through his long and adventurous career, the Irish President has fulfilled that prophecy. Born in America of Irish and Spanish parentage, de Valera is foremost among the many gallant patriots who, since the ill-starred Easter Rising of 1916, have made Ireland's fight for independence from England an inspiration to all small nations of the world who seek their own separate destinies. This full-blooded, comprehensive biography for young readers tells the story of Ireland's battle for freedom by concentrating on one man-soldier, scholar, visionary, and statesman to his admirers; rogue to his unfriendly detractors-who has championed that battle for half a century. . . Lloyd George and Winston Churchill were only two of the brilliant English leaders who clashed with de Valera in the crucial years of his campaign to free Ireland and keep her undivided. Although at the end of this book de Valera's green land still bears the scar of partition, with six counties under British rule, the remaining twenty-six counties enjoy the independence, prosperity, and contentment of the free nation that so many brave men and women died to secure. Jack Steffan's dramatic story covers the de Valera saga from his birth through his first term as President. It tells of courage and skulduggery, defeat and victory, villainy and dedicated heroism-all in the name of national principle. Like the hero of an Irish ballad, Eamon de Valera dominates the scene. His life embodies unwavering purpose and an ennobling patriotism.