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102 ROWLING, J. K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 1997 “there will be books written about harry – every child in our world will know his name!” First edition, first impression, paperback issue, of the first Harry Potter book. Both paperback and hardback issues of the first impression were published on 26 June 1997. This is one of 5,150 copies in wrappers, with all the required points of the first impression: Bloomsbury imprint, 10-down- to-1 number line, the list of equipment on p. 53 with “1 wand” appearing twice in the list, and the misprint “Philospher’s” on the back cover. Octavo. Original illustrated wrappers, spine and front wrapper lettered in white, yellow, dark green, and black. Housed in a red quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Some creases to wrappers, extremities slightly rubbed, light crease to centre of spine, light toning to contents as usual. A very good and bright copy. ¶ Errington A1(aa); Grolier, One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature , no. 100. £17,500 [157342] 103 SCHINDLER, Oskar – GROSSMANN, Kurt R (ed.) Die unbesungenen Helden. Menschen in Deutschlands dunklen Tagen. (“The Unsung Heroes. People in Germany’s Darkest Days”). Berlin: Arani, 1957 schindler’s only published testimony of his wartime work, inscribed by him to his wife, “mother courage” First edition, first printing, of the only autobiographical account of Oskar Schindler’s wartime work to be published, this copy an extraordinarily poignant association, inscribed to his wife: “Meiner lieben Mily in Erinnerung Ihrer mutigen
Zeit. Weihnachten 1957 Frankfurt/Main” (“To my dear Mily in remembrance of her courageous time. Christmas 1957, Frankfurt am Main”). Schindler’s testimony was never republished in his lifetime, and it was never translated into English. We have traced no other copies signed or inscribed by Schindler. At the time of Schindler’s death in 1974, his wartime exploits were not widely known. A number of journalists had submitted pieces on his story, never to be published, and a film project had even been unsuccessfully pitched to Fritz Lang. It was evidently felt that the time was not right for the story of a “good German”, and perhaps particularly not one with the reputation as “a Nazi party member, an indifferent Catholic, a womanizer and a businessman not averse to engaging in illegal activities to increase his profits” (Scheuer). Kurt Grossmann was a German Jew who had fled to the United States in 1939 and following the war was working for the Jewish World Congress in New York. In early 1948, alerted to the story by “Schindler Jews” living in America, he sent Schindler a care package together with a letter expressing his “gratitude for [his] humane behaviour during the terrible Hitler years”, and more pertinently asking, “Have you ever written down the story of how you saved the Jews? I would appreciate it if you could send me a copy” (Bernardi, p. 128). Grossmann finally succeeded in getting this study published, in German only, in 1957. Schindler arrived in Frankfurt, practically destitute, on the eve of the book’s publication, leaving behind his wife Emilie in Argentina, where they had settled after the war. Oskar’s inscription, some six months later, presenting this copy to Emilie as a Christmas gift, is both poignant – he never returned to Argentina, and the couple never met again – and notable for his full acknowledgement of her invaluable work and courage. In this significant compilation of the stories of German gentiles who risked their lives to assist Jews during the Holocaust, Grossmann places “Der Fall Schindler” (“The Schindler Case”) first. After a brief introduction he offers Schindler’s narrative entirely in his own words, which are, on the whole, dispassionate, almost forensic, particularly when the nature of narrative is considered. However, when recounting Emilie’s involvement, his
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