WALTER BENJAMIN: SELECTED WRITINGS: VOLUME 3: 1935-1938

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 462 pages. Volume Three of the author's collected essays. Possibly the greatest literary collection of the mid-20th century, published in English posthumously, more than fifty years later. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only and as part of Harvard University's Complete Works of Walter Benjamin. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Walter Benjamin's "Selected Writings: Volume 3: 1935-1938" in a felicitous English translation. The third - and most important - volume of the Series, a landmark publication in the history of modern thought and literary criticism. "Radical critic of a European civilization plunging into darkness yet commemorator of the humane traditions of the old bourgeoisie: Such was Walter Benjamin in the later 1930's. Twenty-seven brilliant pieces, nineteen of which have never before been translated. The centerpiece, 'A Berlin Childhood Around 1900', marks the very first appearance in English of one of the greatest works of the twentieth century: A profound and beautiful account of the vanished world of Benjamin's privileged boyhood, recollected in exile. No less remarkable are the previously untranslated second version of Benjamin's most famous essay, 'The Work of Art In The Age of Its Technological Reproducibility', and 'German Men And Women', a book in which Benjamin collects twenty-six letters by distinguished Germans from 1783 to 1883, in an effort to preserve what he called the true humanity of the German tradition from the debasement of Fascism" (Publisher's blurb). "The Storyteller" and "Paris, The Capital of The Nineteenth Century", which poignantly anticipates his massive "Arcades" Project, as well as crucible-essays on Bertolt Brecht and Franz Kafka, among other major figures, written during his excruciating years in exile (France and Denmark), are also contained in this epochal volume. Individually and collectively, these pieces describe and sum up Benjamin's single most devastating insight: "There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism" (Walter Benjamin). Walter Benjamin's personal heroism wasn't just some egotistical idea he had about himself. He lived and then died as a hero: He committed suicide on September 26, 1940 at the French-Spanish border while trying to escape the Nazis with a group of fellow Jews. They were all arrested by the Spanish police (Franco was one of Hitler's closest allies). Moved and humbled by his desperate yet principled stand, the Spanish police, defying Franco's orders, allowed his fellow Jews to escape. An absolute "must-have" title for Walter Benjamin collectors. This title is a great collection. As far as we know, this is the only copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online are ALL subsequent printings or have serious flaws. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. The greatest literary/cultural critic of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER WALTER BENJAMIN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0674008960.