Why War?. Paris: International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, League of Nations, 1933

First edition in English, one of 2000 numbered copies. Translated from the German by Stuart Gilbert.

$1,600

The Fight Against War. New York: John Day, (c.1933)

FIRST EDITION.

This scarce collection of Einstein’s writings on war and peace was published in 1933, the year the Nazis took power in Germany and the year Einstein left Germany for the United States. In his prefatory note, Einstein writes, “Mr. Lief [the editor, Alfred Lief] has taken great trouble in collecting utterances of mine having pacifistic content and he presents them with my authorization. … I consider it my duty to confess my pacific conviction publicly. May the seriousness of my purpose be transferred to you, my readers! A. Einstein.”

$1,500

The Indo-Iranian borderlands: their prehistory in the light of geography and of recent explorations. The Huxley Memorial Lecture for 1934. London: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1934

First separate edition. This is Stein’s lecture delivered on the occasion of being awarded the Society’s Huxley Medal.

$1,500

General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. London: Macmillan, 1936

First edition of this classic of modern economics, “on which Keynes’s fame as the outstanding economist of his generation must rest” (DNB).

$24,000

The Haggadah. London: Beaconsfield Press, [1940]

FIRST EDITION of the greatest Haggadah of the 20th century, finely printed in color on vellum, published in an edition of 250 copies.  The entire edition of the celebrated Szyk Haggadah was printed on vellum.

This is Szyk’s own copy, out of series and unsigned. An accompanying provenance note states that it descended from Szyk to his heirs until it appeared for sale at Christie’s in New York in 2015.

$55,000

[Poster.] Nuzhno usilit’ i ukrepit’ internatsional’nye proletarskie sviazi rabochego klassa SSSR a rabochim klassom burzhuaznykh stran [“We Must Reinforce and Consolidate the International Proletarian Links of the Working Class of the USSR with the Working Class of the Bourgeois Countries” – Stalin]. Moscow, Izostat, 20 October 1940

This dramatic poster, similar in style to the Socialist Realist graphics found in USSR In Construction, exhorts the people to support MOPL, the International Organization of Helpers of Fighters for the Revolution. The figures represent international workers united with the Soviets in the heroic struggle for the Revolution. The poster was printed during the last year of Lissitzky’s life while he worked for the Soviet state with the sure knowledge that his friends and colleagues were the victims of Stalin’s purges.

$6,800

Teletype covering the Normandy landings on D-Day. Associated Press, 5 and 6 June 1944

First announcement of the D-Day landings, perhaps the most important event of the 20th century.

$9,500

Idolatry & Confusion. London Gallery Editions, [1944]

Inscribed to René Magritte: “A René Magritte, ces textes mal informés en 1944, écrit en hâte, mais prophétiques. E. L. T. Mesens.” This scarce English Surrealist tract attacks the so-called resistance poetry of Paul Eluard and Aragon as “conformist.”

$1,700

Troisième front poèmes de guerre suivi de pièces detachés. Third front & detached pieces. London Gallery Editions, 1944

FIRST EDITION. Copy number 18 of 500 signed and numbered by Mesens. Inscribed to René Magritte and his wife: “A Georgette Magritte A René Magritte, l’exemplaire réservé pour lui, sa Femme, Noukels et Barfoot, depuis 1944. E. M.”

$2,000

Space Flight … When? [and] Space Flight. Westwood, New Jersey, 1946

This rare fanzine was printed in tiny numbers. We have found traces of the 1946 number on the Internet, but the 1947 number appears to be even more rare. Each number publishes the result of the author’s survey of science fiction writers, editors, and aficionados concerning the likelihood of space travel for humans.

two volumes: $750