Twelve Communist booklets from the library of Harry Hay with his marginalia and underlining
New York; London: International Publishers; Lawrence & Wishart, 1945-1953.
Twelve booklets from the library of Communist Party activist turned gay liberation pioneer Harry Hay, who was central to the founding of the Mattachine Society and the Radical Faeries. All are paperbacks, generally in Very Good condition. All contain Hay's underlining and/or marginal bracketing, always very neat and precise, often revealing an engaged, educated reader in broad agreement with most points but unafraid to challenge orthodoxies.
Eight of the booklets also contain Hay's marginalia. They are as follows:
The following booklets have Hay's underlining only, no writing:
1. Stalin, Joseph. Marxism and Linguistics Four pages contain Hay's marginal notes on the various points Stalin makes on linguistics, adding newer research Stalin was likely unaware of re: Native Americans.
2.Zhdanov, Andrei. Essays on Literature, Philosophy, and Music. Rear wrap missing corner. Marginal notes on a single page about the history of music.
3. Lewis, John. Marxism and Modern Idealism. Nine pages of penciled notes by Hay including a surprisingly frank page-long argument that Marxism is outdated and badly in need of updating for the 20th century.
4. Cornforth, Maurice.Dialectical Materialism and Science. Contain Hay's note on a single page, "In the case of 'gays'- This could be considered an additional confirmation of Pavlov's hypothesis of 'conditioning.'"
5. Cornforth, Maurice. Materialism and the Dialectical Method. Hay's notes written on erratum and in margin of p. 74, "And this happy illusion stood-- until the cracking of DNA."
6. Stalin, Joseph. Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R.. Staining to a few pages. One page of marginalia plus a laid-in handwritten five-page draft of a letter to Maurice Doob about the historical development of capitalism; toned and creased.
7.Rothstein, Andrew. Anglo-Soviet Journal, Summer 1951. Volume XII, No. 2.. Marginalia in an article on archaeology.
8. Pritt, D.N. At the Moscow Trial. Hay wrote "see page 10" on front wrap.
9. Lenin, Vladimir. State and Revolution.
10. Engels, Frederick. On Historical Materialism.
11. Thomson, George. Marxism and Poetry.
12. Benjamin Rush Bulletin, Summer 1950, Vol. 1, No. 4. .
Price: $2,000