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1935 · 26656 — New York: Universum Publishers and Distributors. Good in Good dj. c.1935. First American Edition. Softcover. softcover with dust jacket; jacket affixed to text block at spine shallow chipping along top edge of both book and jacket and at spine ends light staining along right edge of front panel moderate soiling to rear panel. Very uncommon English-language printing of this important play considered to be one of the earliest dramatic works dealing with the persecution of Jews under the Nazi regime. The plot which takes place immediately before the May 1932 elections Act I and in the months immediately following the February 1933 Reichstag fire Acts II-III-IV concerns a respected Jewish surgeon with conservative views who experiences conflict both within his family his son is a committed communist and among the staff at his clinic one of whom a female doctor is a member of the Nazi party. Following the Reichstag fire Mamlock is prohibited by the Nazi government from working at his clinic and organizes a petition drive to fight back with ultimately tragic results. The author a German doctor who turned to writing after serving in the military during World War I became more politically engaged as the years passed. He became a member of the Communist party around 1928 and his plays and other works were frequently centered around controversial and/or political topics; after the Nazis came to power he emigrated from Germany to France and subsequently to the Soviet Union. Wolf later claimed to have conceived the play the day after the Reichstag fire; it was actually written during his brief time in France. Given its unambiguously anti-Nazi political message the play had -- to say the least -- a checkered production history throughout the 1930s far too detailed to go into here. I commend you to the very well-researched Wikipedia page about the play. In America it was presented at the Experimental Theatre in New York in 1937 and 1938 under the auspices of the Jewish Theatre Project of the WPA's Federal Theatre; two film adaptations were made in the Soviet Union in 1938 and in East Germany in 1961 the latter directed by the author's son Konrad Wolf. Per the copyright page of this edition the book although stated as the "First American Edition" was printed in the U.S.S.R.; and it's interesting to note that "all theatre film and radio broadcasting rights were reserved by A. Kertesz 38 Union Square New York City" -- although this is probably not the well-known Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész since he didn't arrive in New York until October 1936 and does not seem to have been involved in either publishing or the theatre. . Universum Publishers and Distributors paperback books