August Spies' Auto-Biography; His Speech in Court, and General Notes
Chicago: Nina Van Zandt, [1887].
First edition, cloth issue. [iv], 91 pp. with frontispieces of Spies and publisher, his wife. Bound in publisher's three quarter black cloth with marbled paper sides, spine lettered in gilt. Very Good with two former owners' private ex libris plates on paste down, hinges cracked but holding, some penciled underlines and marginal tick marks, penciled name on verso of title page. Uncommon in commerce, especially in the cloth version rather than wraps. The autobiography of a martyr in the Haymarket affair-- a German-born anarchist, journalist, and upholsterer who was hanged by the government. His final words were, "The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today." This book was published by a wealthy Chicago woman who became his wife while he was in prison.
Price: $1,200.00