[Item #17120] The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. Upton SINCLAIR, Jack LONDON, introd.

The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest

[Pasadena]: Upton Sinclair, 1921. Reprint. Octavo (18cm). Printed buff wrappers; 891pp + ads. Covers and text mildly toned; still a tight, lightly worn copy of the unusual wrappered edition. Simultaneously reprinted in cloth by Sinclair; initially published by John C. Winston & Co. in 1915.

Important early anthology of radical prose, poetry and art, chosen "from five thousand years of writings on the working man." Includes sources as diverse as Arturo Giovannitti and Eugene Debs to Habakkuk and Martin Luther. Sinclair's intention with this work was to create a "Socialist Bible" to be mass-produced and present in every American household, and Winston's initial printing even included an issue in black, limp pebble-grained morocco. In his introduction, Jack London indeed refers to this as "a humanist holy book;" but as of this writing (2013), Sinclair's effort does not appear to have supplanted the Christian Bible -- despite years of looking, we have yet to encounter a copy of The Cry for Justice in a hotel dresser drawer.

Price: $50.00

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