The Tenth Anniversary of the People's Republic of China. CHINA.

First and only edition, with a printed compliments card from the preparatory committee for the anniversary celebrations. Though unmarked as such, this copy was owned by Solomon Adler, one of the select group of Westerners permanently resident in China during the Mao era. The 1959 festivities signalled China's growing independence on the international stage and its stepping out of the Kremlin's shadow. This lavish production, carefully compiled and printed at great expense, is a comprehensive pictorial review of events held on and around 1 October 1959. It begins with the text of addresses by Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Lin Biao, Deng Xiaoping, and Song Qingling, followed by vistas of famous architectural landmarks such as Tiananmen Square and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution. Photos of a meeting and banquet held in the Great Hall of the People accompany shots from the National Day parade showing fireworks, dancing, and flowers. Mao and Khrushchev feature prominently, as do images of diplomatic events and of politicians inspecting industrial exhibits, architectural landmarks, and cultural artefacts. An economist by training, Adler (1909-1994) worked in the US in the 1940s but later fell under suspicion during the "red scare." After a period spent at Cambridge University, he moved to China in 1962, living in Beijing until his death three decades later and working on the official Chinese translation into English of Mao's Selected Works. Folio. With tissue-guarded portrait frontispieces of Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi tipped in, many illustrations (9 folding) in text. Original white cloth, spine lettered in gilt on red ground, compartments elaborately tooled in gilt, front board with gilt and red emblem of the People's Republic of China, "1949-1959" lettered below in gilt, silver silk bookmarker. With dust jacket. Housed in original card box. Binding with touch of wear, couple of illustrations slightly proud where incorrectly refolded; jacket flaps without price as issued, a few closed tears and chips, scuffing: a near-fine copy in very good jacket and like box, with some toning and marking.