Books and Manuscripts

(Beijing): Printed and edited by the Central Intelligence Bureau of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, (June, 1964). First edition, earliest printed version (with Lin Biao's calligraphic endorsement printed in brown in the uncorrected state, and with text uncorrected at bottom of pp. 82-83, including rare errata slip pasted on p. 83). 12mo. (vii), 2, 2, 250 pp. Title-page printed in red and in green. Illustrated with a lithographic frontispiece portrait of Mao. Original flexible red vinyl wrappers (Schiller's binding B), stamped in blind; shallow tidemark in fore-edge of several leaves at front; some creasing in top corners of leaves at rear; scattered minor spotting to text. See Schiller, Quotations of Chairman Mao

Rare first edition of Mao's iconic "Little Red Book", the influential pocket-size compendium of quotations and excerpts from speeches given by Mao on class struggle, communism, and other topics. This copy with Lin Bao's uncorrected calligraphic facsimile endorsement (Bao was head of national defense and Mao's intended successor), where a superfluous brushstroke occurred in the second vertical line from the right, second character from the top, which was corrected when the book was later printed. Following the "Lin Bao Incident" in 1971, when Bao died in a plane crash after he was accused of plotting to assassinate Mao as part of a political coup, people were encouraged to tear out Bao's endorsement leaf, and future copies were published without it. Only few surviving copies of this 1964 first edition have this leaf intact.

This red vinyl binding is preceded only by the very rare issue in printed wrappers. The error at pp. 82/83 comprised the transposition of two words which was quickly identified and corrected; these were printed first but sat at the bottom of the binding pile, and eventually were issued with a small paper errata slip (often discarded or lost). In this instance the owner has pasted the slip in the lower blank margin of page 83 so it would not get lost. Very few copies of this earliest printing survive with its errata slip intact.

A near-fine copy.