Here’s another long term project finally come to completion. It consists of two very large sized pictures that serve as a graphic bibliography depicting the covers of 200 fiction books featuring the French Foreign Legion in some capacity. The first hundred books were easy to find but the other hundred…not so much. I have to credit Tom Savage’s facebook page for many of these items especially the dust covers for the old UK/Sampson Low novels. Also thanks to Eugene O. who provided a dozen or so of the rare Panther paperbacks and, I have to admit, Amazon was helpful for many of the more obscure but wonderful books out on Kindle and print-on-demand option. I may have a repeat or two in here because so many of the covers change over time as the story gets reprinted and passed around to other publishers. I’ll keep working on it. There are several more books I could not fit into the 200 book format so these will be the start of the 100 slide. The pictures are large and may not display properly because Word Press sucks. Here are the direct download links (Slide-1) and (Slide-2).
Note: I posted an earlier graphic depicting 100 non-fiction books here. I’m working on a follow on to that one but have not reached the 200 mark yet.
Mon Legionnaire 
Hi Jack
You may recall we were in contact some years ago when I was leading an archaeological project on Foreign Legion forts in Morocco.
I thought you might be interested to know that I am now writing a book on that project which is due for publication (all going well) later this year. I will keep you updated and send a copy once published.
Also, I thought I would draw your attention to the work by students of San Diego State University in 2011 on the site of the film set for the 1939 Beau Geste film. You may already know about this but here is the link https://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news_story.aspx?sid=72760
The interesting thing to me is that the artifacts found ( shell cases, buttons, etc) match closely the remains found at real sites.
Regards
Richard
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Of course I remember your motorcycle – archaeological trek to Morocco. I also noticed your book, Line in the Sand, on Amazon due out in August. I’ll be sure to review it on the blog when it come out. It looks very good. Reference the Beau Geste artifacts…I feel that the movie magic makers back then put more effort into research and trying to get the costumes and props as accurate as the budget allowed for. The rifle used in the movie was not the famous Lebel (which would have been more accurate for the time period) but the Model 1907/15 M16 Berthier which in hindsight was an excellent substitute. It fired the same 8mm Lebel round and was actually designed as a replacement for the Lebel although it was only issued to some colonial units before WW1. The shorter carbine version was issued to some Legion Cavalry units and possibly the Mule Mounted Companies. I’ve talked to Frank Thompson occasionally and his film, The Lost Remake of Beau Geste, covered the same ground as those San Diego State students. I’ll have to read some of the information I have about that movie, apparently they didn’t use blanks for most of the weapons if I can remember correctly.
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The students who made the “Lost Remake” all brought their own .22 rifles to the filming. Actually, they didn’t fire any kinds of shells at all since they were filming without sound.
I’ve devoted an in-depth chapter to this student film in my book, “The Compleat Beau Geste” which covers all adaptations of the novel — film, stage, TV, radio, comic books, and more. It features more than 1,200 images and the book will be printed in full color.
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