LUOTO, Lauri

"Ikuiset Uhritulet" [trans: Eternal Sacrificial Flame]

Wisconsin: Amerikan Suomalaisten Sosialististen Kustannusliikkeiden Liitto [American Federation of Finnish Socialist Publishing Houses], 1929. First Edition. Octavo. 19cm. Publisher's cream colored illustrated cloth boards, titled and decorated in black to spine and front board. 364pp. Bumping to spine ends and some small instances of marginal rubbing or scuffing, some cosmetic soiling of the light colored boards in places; internally clean with some toning to page edges. A very good, clean copy.

One of the few novels centred around the Finnish Civil War of 1918 published in the US, in Finnish, by Finnish socialists through their own publishing house. An often overlooked piece of social and labor history, perhaps unsurprisingly given the number of bitter struggles for freedom and equity taking place between 1914 and 1919. However, as pivotal moments go; the transition of Finland from an adjunct Duchy of Russia into a self-directing socialist democratic nation, via the armed struggle of civil war and narrowly avoiding simply exchanging German rule for Russian, can be seen as a compact microcosmic digest of a multitude of other less focussed struggles taking place in the contemporary political and military theater.
Luoto's war, the war of the Finno-Americans who published accounts of it, was just one claw on the wolf fighting his way across Europe in the winters of 1917-18. Whether nations or individuals fled, fawned or fought; all roads seemed to lead irresistibly into the path of momentous events. Scarce.
Only tentative US holdings found on OCLC, with perhaps 8 examples in institutions.

Price: $450.00

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