Books

First edition, wrappers issue, with pages 82-83 in the corrected text state and retaining Lin Biao's calligraphic epigraph, which was often removed after his political demise. Copies in paper wrappers are unassuming in appearance and evoke a period when Mao's words had not yet become ideologically hegemonic tools of political struggle and conflict. The first edition (250 pages of quotations, 30 chapters), compiled for use within the People's Liberation Army two years before the work became synonymous with Mao's Cultural Revolution, was issued either in paper wrappers or in red vinyl. The wrappers binding gradually succumbed to the political power invested in the colour red. By 1967, the overwhelming majority of newly printed copies of the Quotations were issued in red vinyl. Unlike many others, this example has escaped the widespread censorship that followed Lin's desperate flight and death in 1971. On September 13, a plane carrying Lin, along with most of his immediate family, crashed in the Mongolian desert en route to the Soviet Union. The precise cause of his flight is still unknown, but there is clear evidence that relations between the Chairman and his number two soured in the preceding months. After Mao and other party leaders recovered from the drama and shock of the affair - Mao had had to decide whether to have Lin shot down while he was still in Chinese airspace - they quickly issued instructions for all traces of Lin and his support for Mao to be destroyed. READ MORE Duodecimo. Original cream paper wrappers, title and five-pointed star to spine in red, front cover with title in black on red panel and publisher's name in black. Frontispiece portrait of Mao in sepia, black facsimile of Lin Biao's calligraphic epigraph with superfluous brushstroke, first leaf and title page printed in colour. Ownership inscription, dated 13 July 1964, on title page. Covers lightly soiled and creased, heavier diagonal crease on rear wrapper, contents clean: a very good copy indeed. .