THE HEATHEN CHINEE ["Plain Language from Truthful James"] by Harte, Bret; Joseph Hull [ill.] - 1870

Chicago: The Western News Company, 1870. First Separate Edition. Softcover. Very good. 9 numbered lithographic cards, 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches. Titled envelope lacking. Some toning, light soiling, and wear. Very good.

The pirated, first separate issue of Bret Harte's famous and famously misunderstood satire, after its first appearance in the September, 1870, issue of San Francisco's THE OVERLAND MAGAZINE. The poem, a parody of Swinburne's ATALANTA, begins with a game of euchre between the narrator, his friend Bill Nye, and a Chinese immigrant, Ah Sin. Nye is engraged when his own attempt at cheating with cards up his sleeve is foiled by Ah Sin's superior efforts at the same. After complaining about being "ruined by Chinese cheap labor," Nye sets upon Ah Sin, and "a scene" ensues. Of the three versions of the poem illustrated in 1870 and 1871, the present set, illustrated by Joseph Hull, is unique in depicting the "scene that ensued" as a white mob attacking Ah Sin. As both a writer and newspaper editor, Bret Harte had long spoken out against white anti-Chinese bigotry and violence, which he had intended for this poem to mock. The irony was lost to the wider public, however, and Joseph Hull's illustrations helped fuel the wild popularity of the poem and its use as a rallying cry against Chinese immigrants.