THE COMMON SENSE OF WAR AND PEACE
Inscribed first edition of this WWII-era thesis on creating a new world federation to bring about lasting peace — presented to American journalist Dorothy Thompson, who "had gone into battle almost single-handedly against the Nazis" (Kurth).
Very good.
Price: $7,500.00
THE COMMON SENSE OF WAR AND PEACE
"Mr. Wells' job is to think [...] In this book he has been thinking about the war — why we are fighting, what will happen when it is over."
During the 1930s, celebrity journalist Thompson became one of the most vocal critics of Nazism in America. As an American foreign correspondent in Berlin, Thompson had been the first American to interview Hitler, turning the session into an exposé titled I SAW HITLER (1932). The book so enraged Hitler (she noted, "He is the very prototype of the Little Man") that he personally sent the Gestapo to remove her from the country. Back home, "she had her explusion order framed and hung it on her wall" (Lepore). Throughout the war and after, Thompson was "among the most insistent voices urging American awareness of the threats implied in fascist militarism and aggression. On that topic, Thompson's effectiveness and celebrity — some would say notoriety — were unequalled" (Cott). In 1939, Thompson was featured on the cover of TIME magazine as one of the two most influential women in the United States — the other being Eleanor Roosevelt.
Thompson and Wells were already well acquainted in the way of famous writers. Thompson had been married to Sinclair Lewis (though they were separated by 1941, to divorce the next year); Lewis's son from his first marriage had been named "Wells" in H.G.'s honor. Thompson also shared a decades-long friendship with Rebecca West, who had a son by H.G. Wells. During a 1941 visit to London, Thompson met Wells for dinner (where this copy was inscribed). They had already been corresponding the year before about what would become known as the Sankey Declaration of Rights, a forerunner to the United Nations's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Sankey Declaration draft was a central element of Wells's COMMON SENSE OF WAR AND PEACE which argued for a federation of nations as the only solution to "war unending." His views were similar to those in Clarence Streit's in influential UNION NOW (1939), which had attracted Thompson as a supporter.
Wells's inscription in this copy seems to suggest that it was given to Thompson with the idea to publish an American edition of the work; his handwritten note on the copyright page emphasizes that he has "full rights to reproduce [the book] in any form." The holograph annotations that follow in the text, most likely made by Thompson, are editorial in nature, further supporting that it was meant to be used for a new edition: typos are corrected, and portions deleted or updated to reflect changing data from the book's 1940 publication to circa 1942 (e.g. "When England and France declared war [last September] [crossed out]"). The last two chapters (#13, "That New World After the War" and #14, "A Lesson from 1918") have been crossed out entirely and, perhaps most notably, the annotator has removed a few phrases critical of Russia (e.g. "From their [doctrinaire, stupid and suspicious, but] [crossed out] not altogether ill-informed point of view").
A tremendous World War II association copy, evidence of the networking and strategy of two influential public intellectuals during the political upheavals of the epochal conflict.
Read more: Kurth, American Cassandra; Lepore, These Truths; Cott, Fighting Words.
The Object
England / New York: Penguin, (1940). 7.25'' x 4.5''. Original orange and white typographic wrappers. Publisher's ads at rear. 116, [6] pages. Inscribed by Wells in ink to copyright page: "To Dorothy Thompson. / bless her. / & she is not to leave / it behind her. / H.G. Wells / Aug. 19. 41"; under copyright notice, Wells has additionally written "(with full rights to reproduce / in any form / HG.)" Annotations in pencil and ink throughout, likely by Thompson. Light chipping to spine ends minor edgewear, spine lightly sunned. Leaves toned. Firm. Housed in custom quarter navy goatskin clamshell box.
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