In the scarce dustwrapper.

GUNTHER, John ~ Inside Europe : With The Scarce J.L. Carstairs Wrapper

First UK Printing : Hamish Hamilton, London : 1936

8vo., black publisher’s cloth, lettered and lined in blue to backstrip with publisher’s device to foot; together in the rare publisher’s dustwrapper, with vibrant design in red, green and black to upper panel designed by J. L. Carstairs (12s 6d net); THE BOOK with text block evenly toned, a couple of corner creases and some light scratches to the fore-edge; some pushing to the spine ends and slight denting to corners; near-Fine, otherwise, in the Very Good+ WRAPPER, seldom found in such bright condition, evenly toned, and creased to folds / edges; some small nicks and losses to the ends of folds and head/foot of spine; a few minor ink splashes to the upper edge of front panel; text to spine faded, with one small hole (3cm long); corner crease to the inside front flap; a lovely example. The Carstairs wrapper artwork looks striking in the removable Brodart archival cover. Of particular interest is the wrapper, which features Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin to the front panel. Subsequent printings had these figures removed, for obvious reasons. First UK edition of this scarce work by John Gunther, the Chicago Daily News correspondent who, for eleven years, worked in almost every country in Europe and the Near East. Gunther was born in Chicago in 1901, the son of German-American parents who changed their name at the beginning of WWI. Gunther began his career as literary editor of the student newspaper at the University of Chicago, and went on to become a cub reporter on the Daily News. Soon afterwards, he moved to Europe where he primarily covered the continent, as well as the Balkans and the Middle East. From his experiences as a journalist he developed the Inside books, of which Inside Europe was the first. In it, he attempted to summarise the European political situation for the general reader, and travelled over five thousand miles during 1935 in pursuit of its contents. Beginning with Hitler, Gunther takes a trip around Germany, discussing the forces in Germany “making for explosion and war”, before discussing the rise of Fascism in France, the Abyssinian War in Italy, and on to England, where the 1935 General Election is criticised. The conclusion is devoted to Russia. Huge in scope, the publishers believed “that no such intimate study of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Baldwin, Eden…has ever been written.”, and no subject is shied away from, with everything from Stalin’s salary to the Stavisky Affair covered in detail. The work was hugely successful, so much so that Gunther was able to resign from his position to devote himself full-time to his writing, although he did return to his post during the Second World War, when he worked as a war correspondent in Europe. For each of the Inside books, Gunther would travel extensively throughout the area, interviewing political, social and business leaders and gathering research. He would also meet with local people and review area statistics. Of the present title, the author wrote: "This book has had a striking success all over the world. I was fortunate in that it appeared at just the right time, when the three totalitarian dictators took the stage and people began to be vitally interested in them." By the time it was published, Gunther had written four novels, although he went on to publish a further three, and a whole host of other non-fiction titles, as late as 1972. Inside U.S.A., Inside Asia, Inside Latin America, Inside Africa, Inside Russia Today, and, finally, Inside Australia and New Zealand completed his series. A fascinating glimpse into the inside workings of Europe on the precipice of change. The first UK edition is particularly scarce in this version of the dustwrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Very Good+