The Poet in the Desert / A New Version (The Emma Goldman Edition): Presentation copy to actor Basil Rathbone, with 3-page inscription

Presentation copy to actor Basil Rathbone, with lengthy inscription from Wood and [wife] Sara Bard Field explaining why they call this the 'Emma Goldman edition.'

Charles Erskine Scott Wood [C.E.S. Wood (1852 –1944)] was a successful author, civil liberties advocate, artist, soldier, and attorney. He served as a lieutenant with the 21st Infantry Regiment, fought in the Nez Perce War in 1877, and was present at the surrender of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. It was Wood who transcribed, and perhaps embellished, Chief Joseph's famous speech, which ended with: "My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." The two men became close friends.

Following his military service Wood became a pacifist and self-proclaimed anarchist. He did a brief turn as Mark Twain's publisher [1601] and offered advice and money to radical journalist John Reed. After attending Columbia University, Wood moved to Portland Oregon where he became a prominent attorney with both a successful commercial practice and seemingly contrary career defending labor unions and "radicals" such as birth control activist Margaret Sanger, Eugene Debs, and Emma Goldman.

"The persistent efforts of one man in Portland, Oregon exerted an influence that for its potency could hardly be equalled in any other American city. I refer to my friend Charles Erskine Scott Wood."— Emma Goldman, Living My Life

Wood began to write, and in 1915, published The Poet in the Desert, a long poem set in the southeastern Oregon desert and summoning the spirit of the natural world—truth—in judgment of the ills of civilization—poverty, prostitution, and economic injustice. Wood wrote three distinct versions of the poem—in 1915, this second edition in 1918, and a later version in 1929. He also wrote articles and satire for radical journals such as Liberty and The Masses

From 1925 until his death in 1944, Wood lived in Los Gatos CA with his second wife, suffragist and free-love advocate Sara Bard Field. There, they welcomed associates and celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, Eleanor Roosevelt, John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers and apparently Basil Rathbone.

From the lengthy inscription:

"…I am asking my wife Sara B…. Field to join me in an inscription to Basil Rathbone in this second edition of 'The Poet in the Desert.' Commonly called 'The Emma Goldman Edition" …because it was printed at Emma Goldman's request for a cheap 'twenty five cent book-let' which she could sell at her revolutionary meetings – especially among the proletariat of the "East-Side' of New York City.

"But in that insanity called 'the War to End War' when the United States was so eager to promote freedom and Democracy abroad that it killed Freedom and Democracy at home – Emma Goldman was deported to Russia as an Anarchist before the booklet was off the Press.

'Let Freedom sing'

"S/ Charles Erskine Scott Wood

The Stanford University Hospital San Francisco, January 29, 1934."

To which his wife adds:

And since [with too much generosity] he bids me do so I sign myself yours in friendship /s Sara 'Bard Field.

Sara Bard Field (1882 –1974) was an American poet, suffragist, free love advocate, and Christian socialist. She was introduced to Field by Clarence Darrow and hired to be Wood's assistant. She also worked as a reporter for the Oregon Daily Journal, covering the trial of the McNamara brothers, who had bombed the Los Angeles Times building. She worked on successful campaigns for women's suffrage in Oregon and Nevada and spoke at the Chicago convention of the National Woman's Party in 1916. It was Field who suggested the suffragist slogan "No votes, no babies!" Working with Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, Field drove a petition containing 500,000 signatures asking for suffrage from California to Washington, D.C. to present to President Wilson. In February 1921, Field represented the NWP in presenting a women's rights statue to the U.S. Congress, a statue currently on display in the Capitol Rotunda.

Condition: Fair; somewhat shaken, with chipping on the spine, lower front cover partially detached, moderate edgewear, small 1/2" damp-stain to corners of front matter diminishing in size for another 40 pages . But -- let's face it -- this is a $20 booklet priced here for the inscriptions and their association with Goldman and Rathbone. [The inked "Basil Rathbone, 1934" on the front cover appears similar to his own handwriting, but is more likely part of Wood's presentation.]