Books

First edition, first printing, finely bound, of Mao's "Little Red Book". This copy is in the corrected text state and retains the Lin Biao calligraphic endorsement leaf with an incorrect extra brush stroke in one of the characters. The first edition of Quotations From Chairman Mao, compiled for internal use within the People's Liberation Army two years before the Cultural Revolution, was issued either in red vinyl plastic or in paper wrappers, with all first editions containing 250 numbered pages of text. According to the editor in charge, those in wrappers were issued first for the individual use of high-ranking officers, while those in vinyl, which took longer to produce, were intended for brigades of up to eight men. As Schiller notes, copies issued in wrappers do not contain a typesetting error found on pp. 82-3 in some copies in vinyl. Duodecimo. Finely bound in red morocco by the Chelsea Bindery, spine with gilt-dotted raised bands and title and star in gilt, onlay of Mao on front board, twin rule to turn-ins in gilt, black endpapers, gilt edges, original wrappers bound in at front. Sepia portrait frontispiece of Mao, black facsimile of Lin Biao's calligraphy, epigraph and title page printed in colour. Contemporary ink vignette of Mao stamped on front wrapper, very occasional underlining to contents. Wrappers well-preserved with just a little creasing and soiling, contents lightly and evenly toned, occasional faint staining. A near-fine copy. Justin Schiller, Quotations of Chairman Mao 1964-2014; A Short Bibliographical Study, 2014.