H.G. Wells

An inscribed first edition of The Common Sense of War and Peace by H.G. Wells.

• H.G. Wells (English).
• England / New York: Penguin, (1940).
• 116, [6] pages.
• Inscribed by Wells in ink to copyright page: "To Dorothy Thompson. / bless her. / & she is not to leave / it behind her. / H.G. Wells / Aug. 19. 41"; under copyright notice, Wells has additionally written "(with full rights to reproduce / in any form / HG.)"
• Original orange and white typographic wrappers, publisher's ads at rear, housed in custom quarter navy goatskin clamshell box.

Inscribed first edition of this World War II-era thesis on creating a new world federation to bring about lasting peace — presented to American journalist Dorothy Thompson, who "had gone into battle almost single-handedly against the Nazis" (Kurth).

"Mr. Wells' job is to think [...] In this book he has been thinking about the war — why we are fighting, what will happen when it is over."

Wells's inscription in this copy seems to suggest that it was given to Thompson with the idea to publish an American edition of the work; his handwritten note on the copyright page emphasizes that he has "full rights to reproduce [the book] in any form." The holograph annotations that follow in the text, most likely made by Thompson, are editorial in nature, further supporting that it was meant to be used for a new edition: typos are corrected, and portions deleted or updated to reflect changing data from the book's 1940 publication to circa 1942 (e.g. "When England and France declared war [last September] [crossed out]"). The last two chapters (#13, "That New World After the War" and #14, "A Lesson from 1918") have been crossed out entirely and, perhaps most notably, the annotator has removed a few phrases critical of Russia (e.g. "From their [doctrinaire, stupid and suspicious, but] [crossed out] not altogether ill-informed point of view").

A tremendous World War II association copy, evidence of the networking and strategy of two influential public intellectuals during the political upheavals of the epochal conflict.