Books

152pp, top edge blue; elegantly bound with duplex textured endleaves in blocked black morocco with titles gilt-stamped; 225 x 154 x 18 mm. Second printing of the author's enduring classic, comprising the seventh through tenth thousand ("Siebente bis zehnte Auflage" on tp verso). Beautifully printed on fine wove book stock by Oswald Schmidt GMBH, Leipzig. Cover titling differs from the paper-board issue (author's name here in upper case roman font instead of gothic), suggesting a contemporary private binding (though unsigned). The ads include a separate announcement for a new numbered & signed edition of Knulp, illustrated by Karl Walser [p149]; plus 16 other Hesse titles [p150]. It bears noting that following the author's controversial attack on nationalism & militarism, 'O Friends Not this Noise' (3 November 1914: Neue Z�rcher Zeitung), he earned the reputation of a traitor & shirker, leading to a general mistrust of Hesse long before the exemplary suppression of his books by the Nazis (for recommending & reviewing books by Jews). As he put it (in the foreword to War & Peace), "Long before the first victories of National Socialism, I was regarded by official Germany as a suspicious and essentially undesirable character, worthy at best to be tolerated. In the period of its omnipotence, Hitler's party gleefully avenged itself on my books, my name, and my unfortunate Berlin publisher." Occasioning a dramatic increase in the scarcity of original Hesse editions following the maniacal bonfires ignited to sweep the country of 'anti-German sentiment' (1933-45). A lovely copy with the slightest rubbing to the two front tips & crown of spine, though the boards are slightly bowed from the tightening of the leather. Exceptional thus.

Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha.