Labor History from Lorne Bair Rare Books

Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, ca. 1937. Fifth Revised Edition. Small octavo (19.25cm.); original grey printed wrappers; 124,[1](ad)pp. Pages uniformly toned, contemporary price rubberstamp cancel in red ink, else Fine. One of many later editions not specifically cited in Ebert. See MILES 4082 and 4248.

[Chicago: SDS - Students for a Democratic Society, 1969]. First Edition. Octavo (23cm). Folded pamphlet consisting of a single sheet accordion-folded to make 8pp; illustrated cover (portrait of John Brown) and three photographic text illustrations. Printed in black on thin white stock; Fine, apparently unread copy. Brief history of U.S. class conflict, the rise of working-class people's… Read more about this item

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1942. First Edition. First printing. Octavo. Blue cloth boards, lettered in gilt on spine; 369pp. Tight and umarked, Near Fine, in the original printed dustwrapper, price clipped and slightly toned on spine and flap-folds; Very Good. Still a standard source on the Gastonia, North Carolina millworkers' strike of 1929.

New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1901. First Edition. First printing, with the J. J. Little device on copyright page. Octavo (20cm). Red cloth, stamped in gilt; plain endpapers; [viii],652pp; map facing first page of text. Straight and tight, with a hint of fading to cloth on spine and a few tiny specks of soil; Very Good+. The… Read more about this item

Cape Town: C. Struik (PTY) LTD, 1973. First U.K. Edition. First impression. Signed bookplate laid-in by Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer (Literature, 1991). Quarto (29.5cm); red cloth covered boards stamped in gilt on spine; dustjacket; unpaginated; 56 plates. Bumped on the lower spine, else clean and fresh: Near Fine. Jacket rubbed at spine ends, around Very Good or better.… Read more about this item

New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1931. First Edition. First Printing. Octavo (21.25cm); red cloth, with titles stamped in black on spine; black topstain; dustjacket; [2],xvi,348,[2]pp, with photographic frontispiece and 12 plates of illustrations. Spine ends gently nudged, private library sticker on title page, else a fresh, Fine copy. In the original dustjacket, with a wraparound photograph of… Read more about this item

Kansas City: Simplified Economics, N.d. [c. 1954?]. 24mo. Bifolium (4pp). Mild toning; Near Fine. Unrecorded prospectus for "Depression Omega," a socialist economics tract by Joseph William Parker published in 1954. Argues for revolution as the only effective means to economic justice: "Workers are confronted with a problem that, in spite of its having accomplished a great deal,… Read more about this item

New York: New York State Council of the International Association of Machinists, [1948]. First Edition. Slim octavo (21.25cm); pictorial wrappers, stapled; 38ppl illus. Light soil, wear and toning to extremities, with a few tiny tears, Very Good+. The author was a machinist and Chief Shop Steward in New York - the pamphlet aimed at fellow workers.

Moskau [i.e., Moscow]: Verlagsgenossenschaft Auslandischer Arbeiter in der USSR, 1934. First Edition. 12mo. Pictorial paper wrappers; 158,(2)pp. Front cover stained at upper margin, else a tight, Very Good copy, with text fresh and unmarked. No. 12 in the series "Aus der Werkstatt der Revolution." Text entirely in German. Concerns the strike of railway workers in Rostov-am-Don in 1902, considered… Read more about this item

New York: Workers Library, 1939. First Edition. Slim octavo (19cm); original printed card wrpapers, stapled; 16pp. A Fine copy. "A call for the unity of American labor; for the unity of all progressives in the democratic front for social and national security; and for a united stand by the U.S. and the USSR, the only two democracies that stand… Read more about this item

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949. First Edition. First printing. Octavo. Cloth hardcover; dustjacket; 293pp. Tight, Near Fine copy in lightly rubbed dustwrapper, unclipped (priced $3.00 on front flap); Very Good or better. Contemporary ink ownership inscription inside front cover. The Rhode Island author's second novel. Like his first, the best-selling Our Own Kind (1946), the present work… Read more about this item

New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1923. First American Edition. 12mo (19cm). Cloth boards; paper spine label; 160pp. Tight and unmarked; contemporary ink ownership inscription to front endpaper (Katherine Pollak, Vassar College); text pages slightly tanned; boards edge-darkened; spine label rubbed; Very Good.

New York: National Mooney-Billings Committee, 1929. First Edition. Octavo (22.5cm.); staplebound self-wrappers (a bit dust soiled); 22pp. Some wear from handling, but overall a clean, fresh copy, easily Very Good. A relatively early fundraising appeal for the defense of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, two labor leaders framed for the San Francisco Preparedness Day bombing of 1916.… Read more about this item

Boise, ID: The Statesman Shop, [1907]. First edition. Octavo. Printed wrappers; 130pp. Light wear and soil, with bumps at crown and heel of spine; still a clean, sound copy, Very Good. Full transcription of Borah's closing statement as prosecuting attorney in the case of Idaho vs. William D. Haywood et. al., for the 1905 murder of former Idaho Governor… Read more about this item

New York: Workers Party of America, [1923]. First Edition. Slim octavo (18.25cm); original printed card wrappers, stapled; [4],5-48pp. Modest wear and toning to wrappers, with the faint trace of an old ink name and price to upper margin of front cover; contents clean, complete; Very Good+. "An attack upon the Socialist Party for opportunism and treachery, combined with an… Read more about this item

Winchester, VA: Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, (1990). First Edition. Octavo. Cloth hardcover, decoratively titled in gilt; xii,239pp. A previous owner has neatly created a pocket for a private library card inside rear cover, else Fine. Autographed by Wilbur Johnston on title page, also by two other unidentified (and illegible) signers.

Washington DC: Printed at the Office of the National Journal by Wm. Duncan, 1830. First Edition. Octavo. Original printed self-wrappers; 15pp. Removed, with trace of binding residue at bulked edge; lacking cover wrappers if issued. Ink ownership signature on verso of final leaf (partially legible -- "Joshua (?) Dickinson." Very Good. Apparently the earliest publication of the… Read more about this item

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1884. First Edition. 12mo (17.5cm.); original green pictorial cloth embossed in dark green, brown glazed endpapers; 319pp. Minor external soil and rubbing; Very Good or better. Blanck notes two states of the text, one with the statement "The End" following text, the other without, but asserts no priority. Ours is the former. An early… Read more about this item

[Denver]: Press and Education Department, International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, 1951. First Edition. 12mo. Staple-bound, pictorial paper wrappers, 19pp; illus. Fine copy. Convention address by a Black mineworker from Bessemer, Alabama. Asbury makes a passionate statement for empowerment of Black union members, arguing that an equal voice for Black workers will make the union… Read more about this item

Boston: New Arena, (1914). First Edition. First printing. Octavo; publisher's ribbed cloth, titles stamped in gilt on spine and front cover; 316pp; frontis, 5 inserted leaves of photographic plates (halftone portraits). Mild bumps to board corners, else a tight, Fine copy, free of markings or significant wear. Includes background on the growth of monopolies and the rise… Read more about this item