imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 1 archive link; reformat 1 link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#timesonline.co.uk

2024-09-27T04:04:00Z

Rescued 1 archive link; reformat 1 link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#timesonline.co.uk

New page

{{EngvarB|date=October 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}
{{Infobox book
| name = The Last Enemy
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = The Last Enemy.jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = [[Richard Hillary]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country =
| language = English
| series =
| subject =
| genre = War memoir
| publisher = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]]
| release_date = 1942, reprinted April 1998
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Paperback
| pages = 178
| isbn = 1-58080-056-4
| dewey= 940.54/4941 21
| congress= D786 .H5 1997
| oclc= 38073310
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''The Last Enemy''''' (first published in America as '''''Falling Through Space'''''), is a war memoir written by the [[Second World War]] Anglo-Australian [[fighter pilot]] [[Richard Hillary]] detailing his experiences during the [[Battle of Britain]] in 1940.

==Background==
Hillary joined the [[Royal Air Force]] at the start of the Second World War as a university undergraduate. Its text details his experiences as a [[Spitfire]] pilot during the [[Battle of Britain]], during which he was shot down in action, sustaining severe injuries.<ref>"[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3586108/The-enemy-remains-the-same-for-todays-RAF-pilots.html The enemy remains the same for today's RAF pilots]" in ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 7 January 2003</ref>

He wrote the book in [[New York City]] whilst still recuperating from his wounds during a propaganda publicity tour in the United States in 1941 organized by the British Government to attempt to raise support for the Allied cause and the U.S.A.'s entry into the war. However, he was not allowed to appear in public personally, owing to concerns that his severely facially scarred appearance might prove counter-productive, and his work was confined to newspaper interviews and radio broadcasts.<ref>"[http://res.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/52/207/479.pdf British Writing of the Second World War]", Review by Richard Greaves</ref>

Hillary was killed in his 24th year whilst piloting an aircraft in a training accident in 1943.

==Publication history==
The book was first published in 1942 under the US title ''Falling Through Space'', with a cover showing an airman plummeting through the sky. For the British publication the title was amended to ''The Last Enemy'', taken from ([[First Epistle to the Corinthians|I Corinthians]] 15:26, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death".<ref>"[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article810586.ece Embrace of the last enemy]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}" in ''[[The Times]]'', 11 January 2003</ref>
A Dutch translation was published in 1958 under the title ''De laatste vijand''.

==Other media==
A television dramatization of the book was produced in 1956.<ref>''[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496777/ The Last Enemy]'' at the [[Internet Movie Database]]</ref>

==Reception==
Hillary's 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:<ref>{{ODNB |first=Denis |last=Richards |author-link=Denis Richards|title=Hillary, Richard Hope (1919–1943) |id=37548 |orig-year=2004 |year=2012 }}</ref>
<blockquote>The author was acclaimed not only as a natural 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.</blockquote>

In the preface for the book's first edition in 1942 [[J. B. Priestley]] wrote: "''The Last Enemy'' differs from all other books about the R.A.F. because its author, Richard Hillary, is by temperament and inclination, and to some extent training, a writer. ... The value of this book lies in the fact that it is a statement of a fully articulate young man about life in a Service which is generally inarticulate. Richard Hillary happens to be a kind of young man who doesn't often find his way into the R.A.F. He is in my view a born writer."

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{FadedPage|id=20201047|name=The Last Enemy}}
* [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0501181.txt The Last Enemy] (full text) at [[Project Gutenberg Australia]]
* [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]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Enemy}}
[[Category:1942 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Aviation books]]
[[Category:Non-fiction books about the Royal Air Force]]
[[Category:World War II memoirs]]

The Last Enemy (autobiography) - Revision history

imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 1 archive link; reformat 1 link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#timesonline.co.uk