Mao Tse-Tung

Quotations from Chairman Mao [Chinese title]. Beijing: by the Central Intelligence Bureau of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, 1964



16mo (5 7/16 x 4 in.; 138 x 103 mm), 250 pp., half-title printed in red, title page printed in red and green within a double green border, lithograph portrait of Mao, rare facsimile of Lin Biao's calligraphic endorsement  of Mao's writings; a few Chinese characters effaced from half-title, manuscript notes in blue ink on final page and facing fly leaf, otherwise a very clean copy. Red vinyl plastic covers with printed errata slip in pocket of inside back cover.

First edition, very rare red vinyl first state with an uncorrected textual error at pages 82/83 and with errata slip with error on pages 82/83 of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book which was produced by Lin Biao in May 1964 for military use as a pocket handbook for inspirational reading. Difficult to identify as there is no dated colophon, this first printing is a bit taller than all later editions, and includes the error found in the earliest formof Lin's calligraphic facsimile endorsement, where a superfluous brushstroke occurred in the second vertical line from the right, second character from the top, which was corrected when the  book was later printed. This particular version with the uncorrected textual error on pages 82/83 and the errata slip intact and preserved in the back inside pocket of the red vinyl plastic cover is of great rarity.

Following Vice Chaiman Lin's unsuccessful alleged attempt to assassinate Mao in September 1971, people were encouraged to tear out Lin's endorsement. In copies printed after 1971, the facsimile page was no longer included. While only a small number of the original 1964 printing survive, most copies lack one or more pages: Lin's endorsement, and oftern the preface in which his name appears. The present copy is complete, intact, and with the printed errata slip in a handsome state of preservation.