Trotsky léon

1918 · 87406 — Granite City IL: Съюзната Соц. Книжарница и Печатница = Union Social Bookstore and Printing House 1918. First Bulgarian Edition in America. 12mo. Brown woven cloth titled in black on spine and front cover; 134pp. Trace of rubbing at spine ends still a tight Very Good or better copy. <br /> <br /> Translation into Bulgarian of Trotsky's "The Bolsheviki and World Peace" made from the English version published by Boni & Liveright earlier the same year. The Boni edition was in fact a new translation from the German of Trotsky's 1914 pamphlet "The War and the International." Whether this translation was made with Boni & Liveright's permission or even knowledge is questionable though the verso of the title page does credit B&L with the original copyright. <br /> <br /> Granite City Illinois just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis in the extreme southwestern corner of the state was founded in 1896 as a company town by the Niedringhaus Brothers manufacturers of graniteware kitchen utensils. Between 1906 and 1908 the city became a destination for immigrant laborers from Bulgaria Macedonia and Hungary; by the early 1910s it was known as the Bulgarian Capital of America boasting the country's only general-circulation Bulgarian-language newspaper. The presence of so many working-class Slavic speakers made Granite City a natural target for radical organizing and a number of socialist presses thrived there during the first three decades of the Twentieth Century. <br /> <br /> Like all Granite City imprints we've encountered the current title is scarce and is of special interest for likely being the earliest Slavic-language printing of Trotsky's text in North America. OCLC notes only three physical holdings NYPL LC UI. Съюзната Соц. Книжарница и Печатница [= Union Social Bookstore and Printing House] unknown