Buy this book on-line Book Club of California : Original Announcement - The Heathen Chinee; Plain Language from Truthful JamesBook Club of California, San Francisco, CA?
Original maroon wrappers bound with white string. No date, circa 1934. 12" x 14 1/4." Three unnumbered pages, complete. One black and white illustration, complete. Pages and covers are clean and intact except for some wrinkling. Covers have a few bumps and small closed tears on the fore-edge and lower-left corner. This is an announcement and advertisement for an limited edition publication (circa 1934), "The Heathen Chinee: Plain Language from Truthful James," by Bret Harte. This publication was printed by John Henry Nash and came with an Introduction by Ina Coolbrith, Bibliography by Robert Ernest Cowan, and Illustrations by Phil Little. "The Heathen Chinee" is not printed in this announcement but a few lines from the poem are referenced. The following names are listed under the Book Club of California Board of Directors: Alfred Sutro, Albert M. Bender, Flodden W. Heron, E. V. Weller, William C. Van Antwerp, C. O. G. Miller, and Allen M. Chickering. Bret Harte (1836-1902) was an American poet and writer of short stories. Harte is best-known for his short stories about the Gold Rush. "The Heathen Chinee" was a poem first published in 1870 in the Overland Monthly and was intended by Harte to be a satire of anti-Chinese sentiment which prevailed at the time in the United States. In the poem, a Chinese man named Ah Sin plays a card game, euchre, with two white men, "Truthful James" and Bill Nye. "Truthful James" narrates the poem and observes that Bill Nye is cheating with cards up his sleeve. The poem concludes when Ah Sin wins the game but is revealed to have been cheating as well. While "Truthful James" portrays Ah Sin in a negative light and as a racial stereotype, Harte actually expressed both privately and publicly how he was opposed to anti-Chinese prejudice. Unfortunately, the message of "The Heathen Chinee" is arguably ambiguous and the satirical aspect poking fun at racism was lost to many readers at the time. To Harte's dismay, "The Heathen Chinee" had the opposite effect of his intentions and was used instead as anti-Chinese propaganda.. Book. Book Condition: Collectible-Very Good. Binding: Soft cover Click here for full details of this book, to ask a question or to buy it on-line. Bibliophile Bookbase probably offers multiple copies of Book Club of California : Original Announcement - The Heathen Chinee; Plain Language from Truthful James. Click here to select from a complete list of available copies of this book. Bibliophile Bookbase lists over 5 million books, maps and prints including livres d'occasion, used books, incunabula, livres anciens and livres illustrées. Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints. |