BARBARIANS AT THE GATE

London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd. / Left Book Club Edition, 1939. Pink paper over boards, printed in black. Foreword by the author. Spine very slightly cocked, darkening at spine, text block uniformly tanned as a result of the poor quality of the paper, crown of spine rubbed, spot on upper panel, else a good copy.

First edition of this book in this format and binding. The second of Woolf's political essays written during Europe's tumultuous 1930s. The directors and the publisher of the Left Book Club, whose titles state on their covers: NOT FOR SALE TO THE PUBLIC, were uncertain about publishing this book to their club members. It was the first of their titles to openly criticize the Soviet Union, and Stalin particularly, through Woolf's condemnation of the Soviet regime's autocratic suppression of intellectuals and personal freedom. In Woolf's foreword he states in full:  "This book was written before the conclusion of the treaty between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany and before the outbreak of war. Its general argument and conclusions seem to me to be confirmed by these events and I have therefore left the text exactly as it was written, even though in some sentences present tenses have now become past, Presidents ex-Presidents, and the probabilities certainties."
Eighty-four years on Woolf's warnings continue to ring true.