World War II-era dictionary owned by H.T. Forrester, a linguist at Bletchley Park, with evocative manuscript additions of militarily significant words such as "recyphering table," "counter attack," and "shoot down."
Very good.
Price: $9,500.00
"booju: to intercept"
The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) made its wartime home in a vast Victorian estate known as Bletchley Park. Ultimately thousands of people, both men and women, worked there to decode Axis transmissions, one of the most massive efforts in the history of intelligence to that point: "the agency broke vast quantities of Axis messages which had a profound influence on the Allies' prosecution of the war. In order to achieve this, the denizens of Bletchley Park designed entirely new technologies which helped usher in the computer age" (Smith, 1). Among the Bletchley Park codebreakers were mathematicians Alan Turing, whose cryptanalysis helped decode Enigma, and Max Newman, whose plans were developed by Tommy Flowers into Colossus, the first programmable electronic digital computer.
This dictionary was owned by Bletchley Park veteran Hubert Trevor Forrester, who worked primarily on the Japanese Merchant Navy Code in translation and codebook building, with some cryptanalysis. First published in 1918, this dictionary was not issued with warfare in mind. Forrester appears to have adapted it for this specific use, adding dozens of words, phrases, and abbreviations along the top margins. Among the additions are "bullet," "unconfirmed," and "base," with quite a few glosses of specialized Japanese military abbreviations for important countries and cities in China, Turkey, and elsewhere.
A tremendous piece of evidence of practical intelligence work at Bletchley Park.
Read more: Smith, The Hidden History of Bletchley Park; "HT Forrester's wartime memoir," Bletchley Park Museum.
Tokyo: Kenkyusha, (1942). 7'' x 4.5'' x 3.5''. Early drab blue cloth, red speckled edges. 2292, [2] pages. Ink owner name, "HT Forrester" to front free endpaper; Forrester's annotations on over 50 pages, largely in ink, some in pencil, a few trimmed. Wear to cloth, with a few closed tears at joints. Cancel title, a few leaves proud.
We work hard to meet our ethical responsibility to describe our material accurately. All items are guaranteed as described and may be returned for any reason within 30 days. Please notify us before mailing a return.
We guarantee the authenticity of our items. All materials are original (meaning not facsimiles or reproductions) unless otherwise noted. First editions (meaning first edition, first printing) are explicitly stated. TPM is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and upholds their Code of Ethics.
All photographs are of the actual item for sale. We're happy to provide additional images on request.
All domestic orders ship gratis. For orders under $250, free USPS media mail shipping is included; orders $250 and over ship USPS Ground Advantage. International orders over $1000 also ship gratis. Expedited, overnight, as well as other carriers (UPS, Fed-Ex, etc.), may carry additional costs beyond quoted rates. All orders receive tracking information and a direct contact in case of any questions.
International buyers are responsible for any customs, taxes, and related import fees. Please note that we are unable to accomodate requests to misrepresent, misdeclare, or otherwise falsify customs documents when shipping internationally. We appreciate your understanding.
We accept all major credit cards, Paypal, Venmo, check, money order, and bank wire. We are happy to bill institutional buyers' needs. Sales tax will be added to applicable purchases. Items subject to prior sale.
If for any reason you are dissatisfied with your purchase, please contact us. We prioritize our long-term relationships far above any individual purchase, and we want you to love your item as much as we loved cataloguing it.
Type Punch Matrix is a Washington D.C.-area rare book firm founded by Rebecca Romney and Brian Cassidy.
Read more about TPM.
