Arendt, Hannah.

8vo, first edition of the author's first commercially published book, presentation copy inscribed by the author on the front endpaper ("For the family Filene | Hannah Arendt"),  original greyish-blue cloth, stamped in gilt, dust-jacket, preserved in black cloth chemise and slipcase

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First edition of Arendt's first commercially published book, a biography of Rahel Levin (1771--1833),  the German-Jewish writer who was introduced to figures in the German Romantic movement by the daughters of Moses Mendelssohn, and whose home became the meeting place of men such as Schlegel, Schelling, Steffens, Motte Fouqué and Friedrich Gentz. She was introduced to Goethe in 1795. Although she published no major works she was an intense and prolifc correspondent, with over 6,000 letters (out of an estimated 10,000) surviving from those she wrote in the course of her life.

Catherine Filene was a Boston-born philanthropist and patron of the arts. Filene and her husband at the time, Jouett Shouse, a lawyer and newspaper publisher, were one of the American couples who helped sponsor Arendt's immigration to the United States when she was forced to leave Germany in 1933.

Filene's mother was one of the founders of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and her grandfather was the founder of Filene's department store. After attending three colleges (Bradford, Vassar and Wheaton), Filene did work organizing conferences on career opportunities for women, and later worked for the Employment Service of the Department of Labor. She was the first women to earn a Master's degree from Radcliffe College; and her thesis was expanded and published as Careers for Women (Houghton Mifflin, 1920).

Filene went on to have a distinguished career: she was the first woman appointed to the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee, a founder of the Woman's National Democratic Club (1925), and editor of the WNDC's Bulletin (1929-32). She was also the first chairman of the board of the Institute for Women Federal Prisoners. Filene later abandoned her political career to focus on cultural matters in Washington, D.C, where she lived. She was involved with orchestras, show dogs, carnivals and national parks. She is the recipient of many awards, including a posthumous induction to the National Women's Hall of Fame, in 2007.

Arendt began working her biography of Rahel Varnhagen in the late 1920s. The manuscript of the book was nearly complete when Arendt was forced to leave Germany, but the war interrupted her project and also resulted in the destruction of much of the archival material she had planned to consult. Arendt was not able to complete her study until over two decades later; it was published, in part, as a post-war political statement.