When Romain Gary wrote the original version of this inspiring tale of a boy fighting with the partisans in the forests of Poland he was a young pilot in the Lorraine Squadron of De Gaulle's Free French Forces. France, like Poland, was then under enemy occupation and we were thus privileged to publish it for the first time—in our English translation entitled Forest of Anger. It was immediately acclaimed as a deeply imagined and stirring revelation of the heroism of men caught up in the physical and spiritual disasters of war. The publication of the French text in France after the Liberation laid the firm foundation of the international reputation that is author now enjoys Its revision in its present form was undertaken after mature deliberation in order to point more cogently and compellingly the moral of the story which can be summarized in the author's own words: Mankind is born, but humanity must be created—created with inspiration, with infinite patience and love . . . And men have often died so that the myth might come true . . . We still are, and will be for a long time, condemned to heroism.There have been innumerable so-called 'war books', but few have attempted to get at the heart of their matter—the human condition in times of extreme stress and peril. This is, we believe, one of the few.