There's Something in the Air

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943 (17 May). "By Flying Officer 'X.'"
Dedication: "To Hilary St. George Saunders."

An American edition of "Flying Officer X" stories that contains the nine tales published in the 1942 English collection The Greatest People in the World and Other Stories, four of the six stories published in the August 1943 English collection How Sleep the Brave and Other Stories (excluding "How Sleep the Brave" and "Croix De Guerre"), eight stories appearing in neither of those editions, and a "Glossary of R.A.F. Slang" (attached) not appearing in them either.

The 1944 English collection Something in the Air(lacking the initial "There's") does not correspond in its contents with this title; it contains the combined contents of The Greatest People in the World and Other Stories and How Sleep the Brave and Other Stories but none of the additional stories or the glossary.

The New York Times called the book "sheer beauty in writing...the little tales are gems cut from purest carbon, handed down so that they spit cold fire...These are tales told in impressive quiet, tales that are innocent of even the suggestion of flagrant heroism that colors so many stories about combat pilots."

Reviews:

• Saturday Review of Literature (June 5, 1943, p. 8, Ben Ray Redman, attached)
• New York Times (May 16, 1943, p. BR3, Meyer Berger, attached)
• Books on Trial (September, 1943, p. 314, Riley Hughes, attached)

Contains: It's Never in the Papers; There's No Future in It; The Young Man from Kalgoorlie; It's Just The Way It Is; The Sun Rises Twice; No Trouble At All; A Personal War; K for Kitty; The Greatest People in the World; Macintyre's Magna Charta; The Beginning of Things; Li Tale; The Disinherited; Sorry, No Saccharine; Sergeant Carmichael; O'Callaghan's Girl; Yours is the Earth; Morning Victory; Free Choice: Free World; Here We Go Again; There's Something in the Air; Glossary of R.A.F. Slang.