De Dierenriem. Proza van Albert Helman. Prenten van Pieter Starreveld.

[Amsterdam]: N.p., 1940. First edition. One of 100 numbered copies printed on Van Gelder handmade paper and signed by the author and printer. Unpaginated but with title leaf and 12 beautiful and striking color linocuts of the signs of the Zodiac on rectos and explanatory material on versos/ Publisher's white cloth with red, black and blue lettering. Bit of soiling to cloth but a very good copy.Lodewijk 'Lou' Lichtveld was a Surinamese politician, playwright, poet and resistance fighter who wrote under the pseudonym "Albert Helman". Lou Lichtveld was born in Paramaribo, Suriname into an elite family. At the age of twelve, he went to the Netherlands to become a priest at boarding school Rolduc in Kerkrade. He completed this training after a short time and returned to Suriname. At the Paulus School in Paramaribo, he completed a music study. After that he worked as an organist and composer. He gained notability in 1923 when he published the poetry collection De glorende dag (The Dawning Day), a milestone in immigrant literature in the Netherlands. He followed it three years later with Zuid-Zuid-We. After the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, Lichtveld went into hiding, because he could no longer be a publicly known anti-fascist. In the resistance, he was active as a forger of personal documents and as a writer of resistance slogans. He also wrote for the illegal paper Vrije Kunstenaar ("Free Artist"). During the occupation, he wrote under the pseudonyms Joost van den Vondel, Friedrich W. Nietzsche, Hypertonides and Nico Slob."Resistance through publishing in the Netherlands began with a group of students from the university in Utrecht, who wanted to raise money to help provide food, shoes and clothing for Jewish children in hiding. Among the most beautiful works is a book entitled De Dierenriem (The Zodiac), by Albert Helman, a major figure of the time. He accompanied full-page, full-color linoleum prints of the 12 signs of the zodiac with text set in handmade type that resembles calligraphy. Astrology wouldn’t seem to be a controversial topic, but Dewulf explains that it became popular during the resistance among people desperate for signs that their ordeal would end." (Berkeley News).