Copyright Details

The title page states 1918, which is the earliest publication year for this book.
This appears to be a 1918 printing, though multiple printings were issued that same year due to wartime popularity.

This is not necessarily the first printing of 1918, but it is from the first-year edition cycle.

📘 Book History

Over the Top is Arthur Guy Empey’s firsthand account of his service as an American volunteer soldier in the British Army during World War I.

The book became a major bestseller in the United States because:

• It offered one of the earliest American perspectives from the trenches

• It included illustrations and diagrams explaining trench warfare

• It introduced readers to Empey’s famous “Tommy’s Dictionary of the Trenches”

• It was released while the war was still being fought, making it a piece of living history

• Empey later adapted it into a film and became a public speaker using the book’s success

Its immediate popularity resulted in dozens of 1918 printings.

📚 Description of Contents

This edition includes:

• Empey’s narrative of his enlistment, training, trench combat, shelling, machine-gun warfare, and wounding

• 16 illustrations and diagrams, including posed photos such as
  “The Author just before Leaving for Home”

• The widely reprinted Tommy’s Dictionary of the Trenches, a glossary of WWI trench slang

• A detailed, gritty, and patriotic portrayal of trench life, intended to rally American support for the war

📦 Physical Condition

Covers

• Red cloth boards with gold stamping

• Noticeable fading and sunning to spine

• Some small spotting on front cover

• Light fraying at corners and spine head/tail

Interior

• Paper is toned (typical for wartime printings)

• Some foxing visible

• Plates and all pages appear intact

• No major tears noted

Condition: Good– (G–) to Good (G) for a WWI-era cloth book.

The condition is typical, as these editions were often read heavily.

⭐ Special Features

• Early 1918 wartime printing

• Includes original photo plates

• Contains Tommy’s Dictionary, often sought by military historians

• A major WWI bestseller and culturally important patriotic work

• Classic G. P. Putnam’s Sons wartime binding

While not rare, early 1918 copies remain desirable for military history collectors.