The French Foreign Legion is a military outfit with a lot of history around it and some legend. I can remember seeing movies about the FFL growing up. The one I remember best is the 1966 remake of Beau Geste starring Dean Stockwell, Doug McClure, Telly Savalas, and Leslie Nielsen.

I read pulp writer Wyatt Blassingame’s Landmark book on the French Foreign Legion as a kid. I wanted to do a term paper on the French Foreign Legion as a senior in high school but could not find any history of it. I read La Legion! By Geoffrey Bocca in the 80s when I accidentally stumbled across it in the library.

I eagerly picked up Douglas Porch’s The French Foreign Legion (which I still have) in trade paperback in the early 90s. I will read about anything by Douglas Porch.

My fourth French Foreign Legion history is Charles Mercer’s Legion of Strangers. I had known of this book having seen an image of the paperback online. I happened to spot a copy at a dealer table at Pulpfest last summer and snatched it up.

I read a chapter each night this past fall in between horror fiction in the run up to Halloween. Charles Mercer wrote fiction for slick magazines including Collier’s and Saturday Evening Post in the 1950s. He wrote a history on Alexander the Great in the early 60s and some fiction novels.

Legion of Strangers was a hardback in 1964. The paperback from Pyramid Books is from 1965 with a beautiful cover. Cover artist is not listed.

Mercer goes through the history of the Legion from its formation to its move from Algeria. The book ends with the future of the Legion in doubt.

Mercer’s prose is engaging as he tells history but in a dramatic way. Campaigns in Algeria, Spain, Indochina, Morocco, Dahomey, WW I, WW 2, Dien Bien Phu are told with great flair. This is a great book. I like it better than Bocca’s La Legion! If you want detailed history, by all means, get Douglas Porch’s book. Mercer’s book is great evening reading after supper with a bottle of beer and a roaring fire.

If you see Legion of Strangers in a used bookstore, by all means pick it up.