About this Item
First printing of the first UK edition, published in 1960. The author's first book, published pseudonymously as Joseph Novak. A critical look at everyday life in the Soviet Union. ***Very good in black cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. Corners quite sharp - bottom corner of front board slightly creased. No reading creases to the spine and no reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Page block edges lightly foxed. Internally also very good with no inscriptions. Pages clean. No internal foxing. ***Please note that one page (p.45/6) has been quite badly creased (please see scans). ***In a very good illustrated dustwrapper, which has been neatly corner price-clipped. The dustwrapper is largely complete, but there is some loss at the head of the spine (not affecting the lettering). There are a couple of very small chips, to the top and bottom edges of the front panel, and the extremities are slightly rubbed and creased. No fading to the sun-sensitive red spine colour of the dustwrapper, and no browning. Dustwrapper bright. ***222mm x 145mm. 255 printed pages.
***'"The Future is Ours, Comrade" presents a new look at everyday life in the Soviet Union. No visitor from this side of the Iron Curtain has been able to return with a report as detailed and revealing as this - because a Westerner is not allowed to live among the Russian people as a Russian. Here is an intimate picture of the life of the Russian citizen, drawn from facts given in conversation by hundreds of people; a provocative, often surprising description of Russia as it really is today'. (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper)
"When I visited the mausoleum, entangled in the never-ending chain of waiting people, the silhouette of the St. Basil's Church with its unique and fantastic architecture loomed in front of me. At the right were the walls of the Kremlin. The comparatively low mausoleum was sheltered by them. White-coated militia-men formed a symmetrical line running round the vast spaces of Red Square and kept the waiting people in order. The square was deserted otherwise. Traffic was forbidden. The people moved very slowly. I looked at the faces around me. They represented all the races and nations which make up the U.S.S.R. Men, women, children, young people, old people waited patiently, staring around the big square". (Quote taken from the text p.45)
***Jerzy Kosi?ski (born Józef Lewinkopf) (June 14, 1933 - May 3, 1991) was a Polish-American novelist and two-time president of the American Chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. Born in Poland, he survived World War II and, as a young man, emigrated to the U.S., where he became a citizen. Kosi?ski was born in 1933 as Józef Nikodem Lewinkopf in ?ód?, as the only child of Polish Jews Mieczys?aw (Moj?esz) Lewinkopf and El?bieta Liniecka. As a child during World War II, he lived in occupied central Poland under a false identity, Jerzy Kosi?ski, which his father gave him. He was known for various novels, among them "Being There" (1971) and "The Painted Bird" (1965), which were adapted as films in 1979 and 2019 respectively. Kosi?ski's novels have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list, and have been translated into over 30 languages, with total sales estimated at 70 million in 1991.' (Wiki)
***The first UK edition, first printing of Jerzy Kosi?ski's first published work, published in 1960. The book was published under the pseudonym of Joseph Novak to protect the identity of the author. A very uncommon book.
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