EVEN when he was a boy in Buffalo, Homer Zigler wanted to do something wonderful with his life. Later he realized that the two great things he was to do were to marry Frances Harbach and write the great American novel.

Then there was the evening when he felt sure that Frances was not true to him, and the bitter flight from home, and the new job as a reporter in Cleveland. All the while Homer was keeping a. journal of notes for the great book he was going to write.

On to Kansas City after a while. Homer had not forgotten Frances, but Pearl was right at hand. She was the wrong girl, but he married her anyhow, and his life went on with the chasm between the outer world and the marsh fire of his inner dreaming wider than ever. In San Francisco, in Denver it was the same. He was a good newspaperman, but the image of Frances was still coming into his dreams, and the novel was still unwritten.

Unlike his hero, Clyde Davis is an exnewspaperman who does write novels. When both The Anointed, his first, and The Great American Novel—" became best sellers, he stopped reporting and took up this very much harder profession. His latest, The Rebellion of Leo McGuire is the story of an honest burglar.

This special edition of 'THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL—'' by Clyde Brion Davis has been made available to the Armed Forces of the United States through an arrangement with the original publisher, Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., New York.

Editions for tile Armed Services, Inc., a non-profit organization established by the Council on Books in Wartime