This Deception [Inscribed to Ralph de Toledano]

First printing (with Roman numeral "I" to copyright page). Inscribed by Massing on front free endpaper: "To Ralph and Nora / in friendship in love," signed, undated but apparently contemporary with publication. Octavo. Red cloth hardcover; dustjacket; 335pp. Tight, clean copy, Very Good or better. In the original dustwrapper, unclipped (priced $3.50 on front flap), rubbed and worn with some clear tape reinforcements to head and heel; just VG. A singular presentation copy of Massing's sensational memoir, revealing her career as an NKVD recruiter in Washington beginning in the 1920s, through the Great Depression and WW2. After the war, Massing turned; her testimony against Alger Hiss in 1949 was a critical factor in his ultimate conviction. This copy inscribed to the prominent right-wing journalist, commentator and political operative Ralph de Toledano and his wife Nora. Toledano's (1916-2007) 1950 book, "Seeds of Treason," is one of the key conservative accounts of the Hiss trial and marked a clear turning point in Toledano's career - he having been, prior to the revelations of the trial, a socialist-aligned left intellectual, at one time the editor of the SP organ The New Leader and later a publicist for the left-wing International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU).…