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TOLLER, ERNST - Translated by R. Ellis Roberts: : LETTERS FROM PRISON INCLUDING POEMS AND A NEW VERSION OF 'THE SWALLOW BOOK'

LONDON.JOHN LANE/THE BODLEY HEAD,1936.

ISBN No ISBN.

UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj,1st edn.[An ex-BOOTS Circulating Library book,BUT in publisher's original binding AND 1st edn state - without Library's hole in head of spine/backstrip.See at end of description.] VG. No owner inscrptn per se,but residual presence from the removal of library's iconic green paper-shield sticker from front board's lower edge and residual evidence of removal of sticker, and other library label on rear endpapers - no other internal or external library indications present.Fairly clean with minor imperfections commensurate with book's age,publisher's original plain undecorated chocolate brown cloth boards/ covers with partially dulled/oxidised gilt letters to a sunned or lightly faded spine/backstrip,white endpapers,rear hinge with cracking at blank and verso of rear fep - recto of same as part of the rear pastedown+fep,solid without any cracking - as is the front hinge .Negligible shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners - two front corners minisculely rubbed with reciprocal fraying - no other nicks, tears,splits or fraying present.Top edges coloured dark brown,fore-edges inevitably toned but with very minimal,sporadic foxing; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread, apart from my own collation.UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj, 1st edn,vii-xixpp+3-369 [paginated] includes translators' separate preface, notes and introduction,separate contents, index to letters,and illustrations list/ table,Poems of War,sections of letters and poems from various prisons and years covering the five years of his imprisonment,12 monochrome photographs - includes frntis and each with tissue-guard - interspersed throughout the text and the book; plus [unpaginated] half-title with publisher's advert to recto,tissue-guarded author's contemporary monochrome portrait photographic frntis,title page,individual section separator pages and 2pp blank at rear. Ernst Toller,born 1st December 1893 – died (suicide) 22nd May 1939 was a German left-wing playwright and poet,best known for his Expressionist plays.He served in 1919 for six days as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic,after which he became the head of its army.He was imprisoned for five years for his part in the armed resistance by the Soviet Republic to the central government in Berlin.for his part in the revolution.For his participation,sentence was served in the prisons of Stadelheim, Neuburg,and Eichstatt.From February 1920 until his release,he was in the fortress of Niederschonenfeld,where he spent 149 days in solitary confinement and 24 days on hunger strike. While in prison Toller wrote several plays which gained him international recognition.They were performed in London and New York as well as Berlin and latterly,several of his plays were published in an English translation. In 1933,after the Nazi rise to power, Toller was exiled from Germany because of his work; the Nazis did not like modernist arts of any form and his citizenship was nullified by the Nazi government later that year.Emigrating to America he lived in California and finally New York.He committed suicide,hanging himself, 22nd May,1939. Boots Book-Lovers' Library was a circulating library run by Boots the Chemist,a nationwide chain of pharmacies in Britain. Just before the turn of the 20thC,in 1898,at the instigation of the wife of Jessie Boot the founder of the pharmacy business,Florence,created this business's circulating library.Herself an avid champion of reading and the arts decided the time was right for the Boots empire to expand into the circulating library business.Starting with usually reprints of popular fiction from the first half of the twentieth century,and also using second hand books,but after a while decided to move to stocking books specially manufactured and bound for Boots. Hence these mysterious small volumes with the small hole at the top of the spine,this by the way,was for the reader tying their membership card to the book and doubling it up as a bookmark. There were three subscription schemes,a premium one for hiring On Demand,one for hiring new books and a cheaper one for hiring already published books.Despite their established main competitors of W.H. Smith and Mudies,the Boots libraries were, for some time,the most popular circulating library in the country and by the start of the 1960s it was beginning to take on some of the W.H. Smith libraries that were being abandoned by the news and stationery chain.But by 1965 the network had shrunk dramatically and in 1966 they closed completely.The final nail in the coffin was in 1964,with the passing of the Public Libraries and Museums Act,which put an obligation on local authorities in providing free lending libraries for the use of everyone regardless of their class or income status. So, you are holding a little slice of British social and librarianship history in your hands,and given what’s happening currently to our public library network with under-funding,cutbacks and closures,they may well be the forerunners of what we may be forced to recreate again in the future. Please contact seller,because of the weight and the value of this item for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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