The Last Enemy

Infobox Book
name = The Last Enemy
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author = Richard Hillary
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language = English
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genre = Autobiography
publisher = Burford Books
release_date = 1942, reprinted April 1998
english_release_date =
media_type = Paperback
pages = 178
isbn = ISBN 1-58080-056-4
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"The Last Enemy", published in America as "Falling Through Space", is an autobiographical book by Spitfire pilot Richard Hillary. Richard Hillary was born in Sydney, Australia, on 20 April 1919 but was educated at Shrewsbury School in England and Trinity College, Oxford. He joined the Royal Air Force at the start of World War II. It covers his training and his experiences in the RAF, the Battle of Britain and his ordeal after suffering severe burns to his face and hands after a crash. [" [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/01/07/do0701.xml The enemy remains the same for today's RAF pilots] " in "The Daily Telegraph", January 7, 2003] He underwent plastic surgery, by the famous pioneering surgeon Archibald McIndoe and returned to action. He was lost on a night training mission. [" [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,780038,00.html?iid=chix-sphere The Man Who Makes Faces] " in "Time", September 27, 1948]

He wrote the book in New York where he was recovering from his injuries and surgery. He had gone to the United States to raise public awareness of the war in Europe, the United States not declaring war on Nazi Germany until after Hitler declared war on the USA in the wake of Pearl Harbor, although he was not allowed to appear in public himself due to fears his scarred appearance might prove counterproductive. [" [http://res.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/52/207/479.pdf British Writing of the Second World War] ", Review by Richard Greaves]

His biographer, Denis Richards, writes that the book and its author met with instant acclaim, although the book was unusual in the depth of its storytelling: ["Richard Hillary" in the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004]

The author was acclaimed not only as a born writer but also as a representative of the doomed youth of his generation, although in his constant self-analysis he was in fact a most untypical British fighter pilot of 1940.

The book was first published in 1942 under the US title "Falling Through Space" with a cover showing an airman plummeting through the sky. However, this was felt to be inappropriate, and for the British edition a line from The Bible "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Corinthians 15:26) was chosen. [" [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article810586.ece Embrace of the last enemy] " in "The Times", January 11, 2003] A television adaptation was produced in 1956. [" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496777/ The Last Enemy] " at the Internet Movie Database]

References

External links

* " [http://wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/20century/topic_2/lastenem.htm The Last Enemy] " (excerpts) at the "Norton Anthology of English Literature" online.
* [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/top3mset/9197927 worldcatlibraries.org]