Spada the Bandit. Edited with Annotations and an Afterword by Rob Couteau

"To have lived to the full, to have loved, to have fought, to have killed: that is a man's life. And even though the price be death, it would be cheap at that." As chronicled in this extraordinary memoir, André Spada (1897 - 1935), the infamous Corsican bandit known as the "King of the Maquis," embodied a complex amalgam not only of Good and Evil but also of contrary emotions and perceptions. These include compassion and kindness as well as those cold-blooded instincts that eclipse the humanity of those driven by abject criminality. Thus, we have the "two Spadas." But beyond the idiosyncratic biography of a particular individual, it's through this confession that we gain entrée to a uniquely structured demimonde: the world of honorable bandits known as the Maquisards, constructed upon a rigid set of codes. Part of that pledge is to never betray their leader, even when a steep price is placed on his head. And even after a French expeditionary force is sent into Corsica with the sole purpose of rooting out the bandits. The military contingent is composed of tanks, planes, mountain artillery, a cannon, explosives, armored cars, field kitchens, and 1,400 troops; yet they fail to capture Spada and are eventually withdrawn. But a police campaign finally succeeds in forcing Spada out of his lair and driving him across the island. Available for the first time since 1935, this annotated edition features an in-depth Afterword by literary author Rob Couteau.