Books

The world's largest and most diverse collection of editions and translations of Mao's "Little Red Book", including many variants of the first edition, exceptionally rare precursors, dozens of official and unofficial versions and translations, and satirical reinterpretations. "No other object proved more useful for the projection and reflection of the complexities and contradictions of the global 1960s" (Cook, p. xiv). Conceived as a manual for the political education of the rank-and-file, Quotations from Chairman Mao evolved into a defining socio-political, cultural, and countercultural symbol, translated into dozens of languages and printed in quantities far exceeding those of any other modern book. This collection, compiled over the last three decades by the collector Justin G. Schiller, encompasses 200 items, including material otherwise untraced, showcasing every facet of a complex history: the release of the first edition in May 1964 in an array of bindings and formats; the editing and consolidation of the text into its familiar 270-page, 33-chapter form; the reissues and textual changes called for by changing political circumstances; and the circulation of official and unofficial translations targeting a global audience. First edition copies were issued in both red vinyl and wrappers, but examining copies side-by-side highlights nuanced differences. These include, for example, variations in the decorative blind tooling used on the pockets of vinyl jackets and the method of securing the text block. In one case, the name of the manufacturer of the vinyl jacket is stamped on the rear pocket, adding a touch of branding. Also of great rarity are experimental bindings or those made for specific purposes. They represent alternative aesthetic approaches to packaging Mao – alternatives that were ultimately short-lived. Two editions are bound in maroon cloth with silver or yellow lettering, while another is in brown vinyl, and two copies have blue vinyl jackets. The Little Red Book had an exciting pre-history. We offer two dozen experimental collections compiled from 1960 onwards which show the Maoist canon beginning to solidify but still in flux. The core of this group is ten copies, in different bindings, of a 351-page version first promulgated in 1963. These each come from one of four separate editions published between 1963 and 1964, the 351 pages evolving and changing to take into account changing editorial emphases and to correct typesetting errors. These precursors are joined by editions, published in parallel to the May 1964 first edition, that were short-lived alternative visions for packaging and presenting Mao. The most notable is a 36-chapter edition published in Wuhan in December 1965, which doubled the length of the text and proved unmanageable and unwieldy. The Little Red Book had, and continues to have, many afterlives. In the 1960s and 1970s, outside of China, people ranging from conservative radio hosts to German publishers of erotica deployed its symbolic power for Cold War or commercial purposes. And, amidst China's successful "reform and opening up", Mao has been reinvented as a collectible. Crude reproductions from the 1990s and 2000s, hawked at tourist sites to this day, are the foil to a leather-bound "collector's edition" issued in America. A sense of the logistics of publishing Mao is given by a group of rare printer's stereotypes used to print the first edition in English. As Mao famously wrote, "a single spark can start a prairie fire". Unlikely to be equalled, this extraordinary collection shows that the Little Red Book, one of the most influential books of the last century, grew from humble origins into a phenomenon that resists narrow categorization. It forms the basis of a bibliography to be published by Peter Harrington in 2025 and written by our Asia Specialist, who has spent the past year studying the history of the Little Red Book as seen through this assemblage. A brochure on the scope and significance of the collection, as well as a full inventory, is available on request. READ MORE Offered as a collection: together, 200 items, predominantly books duodecimo or smaller, many bound in red vinyl. Housed in 191 custom red buckram solander boxes and 2 grey archival boxes. A detailed inventory is available on request. Ownership marks and annotations as expected with this type of material, general signs of use. A well-preserved collection. Detailed condition reports are available on request. Alexander C. Cook et al., Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History, 2014.