FIRSTS ONLINE Winter 2020

11. [MILLIGAN, Spike]
Roma
N.p. N.p. N.d. [1940s]
Large 8vo, unpaginated. String bound in original illustrated stiff paper
wrappers. 20 b&w photographic plates, engraving to front free endpaper.
Small piece of adhesive tape to front wrapper (not affecting illustration).
(Outsize) wrappers a little rubbed, darkened and edgeworn, but a well
preserved copy.
SPIKE MILLIGAN’S COPY, WITH HIS OWNERSHIP INSCRIPTION
TO FRONT WRAPPER: ‘Bought in Italy when I was a soldier WWII.
S. Milligan’. A well-produced tourist’s brochure of the sights of Rome,
featuring photographic plates of the Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s Basilica,
the Capitol and the Colosseum, among many others.
Spike Milligan’s military service in Italy during the Second World War is
recalled in his memoir Mussolini: His Part In My Downfall. First stationed
in North Africa, Milligan landed in Italy in September 1943. There he
contracted malaria and was wounded in the Battle of Monte Cassino;
once discharged from hospital he was assigned to a number of noncombat
jobs away from the front line, and spent time in Rome in 1944
(some of it in the company of fellow future Goon, Harry Secombe).
A beautiful survivor. Like Spike.
£295
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