Jack Bilbo an Autobiography

London: Modern Art Gallery, 1948. First edition. Cloth. Very Good/Good. 13.5" by 10.5". Jack Bilbo. A scarce, signed copy of Jack Bilbo's autobiography. Bilbo was a German writer, art gallery owner and self-taught painter. In the original scarce dustwrapper. Dustwrapper is price-clipped. Gift inscription to the recto of front endpaper, 'To Mark Rubens, a heavy book on his poor shoulders from Jack Bilbo 1948'. Bilbo's parents owned a theatre costume business which was confiscated by the Nazis. He fled Germany soon after and changed his name to Bilbo, and was placed in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man in 1940. He founded the Modern Art Gallery in London in 1941 and welcomed fellow refugee artists such as Kurt Schwitters and Picasso. This work looks at the first forty years of Bilbo's life as an 'artist, author, sculptor, art dealer, philosopher, and a modernist fighter for humanity'.  In the publisher's original cloth binding, held in the original price-clipped dustwrapper. With original slipcase. Externally, very smart with just some minor shelfwear to the extremities. Dustwrapper is chipped to the extremities, with loss to the front wrap in particular. Slipcase is rubbed, with the top edge detached from the rest of the slipcase. Author's gift inscription to the recto of front endpaper. Internally, firmly bound. Pages 358-362 are adhered. Pages are very bright with just the occasional light spot. Very Good