THE SAND PEBBLES.

New York [1962], Harper. Orange cloth, 597p., very clean & bright, end paper maps, 14 x 21.5 cm., dj.in mylar protector together with "Cast & Crew Xmas card. FIRST & ONLY EDITION ** WINNER OF THE 1963 HARPER PRIZE NOVEL CONTEST ** The celebrated novel was made into a film, starring Steve Mc Queen. . The setting was in China during the 1920's. For years the San Pablo an absurdly ancient relic of the Spanish American War has been patrolling the far reaches of Hunan on a tributary of the Yangtze River, "showing the [American] flag" and protecting the lives & property of American missionaries and business men from the attacks of Chinese bandits, rival war lords and the 1927 revolution in war-torn China. . The story of the ship's Chinese crew, the love and lives of the sailors, their Chinese girls, maverick-loner sailors, their skipper...a most touching and fascinating story of the "old china hand." ******* The Sand Pebbles is a 1962 novel by American author Richard McKenna about a Yangtze River gunboat in 1926. It was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post for the three issues from November 17, 1962 through December 1, 1962. The author completed it in May, 1962, just in time to enter it in the 1963 Harper Prize Novel Contest. Not only was it picked over 544 other entries for the $10,000 first prize and accepted for publication by Harper & Row, but it was also chosen as the following January's Book-of-the-Month Club selection. * WHO WAS THE AUTHOR: Richard McKenna served aboard a Yangtze River gunboat in 1936 but set the novel a decade earlier, during the Nationalist Northern Expedition of 1925-1927, aboard the USS San Pablo, a gunboat left from the Spanish-American War. . The phrase "Sand Pebble" is a pun on the boat's name; thus, the sailors who serve on her are the sand pebbles. The novel describes a life of boredom and sudden battle action, but the chief conflict is between the traditional western ideas which saw China in racist and imperialist terms and emerging nationalism. . The protagonist, engine mechanic first class Jake Holman, teaches his Chinese workers how to maintain the boat's engine. He refuses to call them "coolies" to master the ship's machinery by understanding it, not just "monkey see, monkey do." . The ship is sent to save the China Light [American missionary station. Chinese local militants and other Chinese revolutionary forces were promoting their "anti-foreign" policy and then attacked the mission. Holman and other sailors defended the mission trying desperately to remove the American missionary girl back to the ship. Holman was killed in the action. *** A SPECIAL & UNUSUAL COPY: Together with the book is: Loosely laid-in is a lovely Chinese New Year's [December 1965] greeting card from the "Cast & Crew of "THE SAND PEBBLES." The front & back sides have a greeting in both English & Chinese, the back side shows a color harbor scene and the filming crew. The film was shot in Taiwan. See scans posted to our website. *** REFERENCE: Steve McQueen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McQueen * The movie "Sand Pebbles" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand_Pebbles_(film) * .