CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ: THE ENSLAVED MIND [1989].

Description

First national edition, 1989 | Autograph of the author | AP bibliophile binding | Very good condition
First official national edition of one of the most important works of Polish literature of the 20th century – and at the same time an exceptional copy: autographed by Czeslaw Milosz. The book was published in 1989 by the National Publishing Agency in Cracow, already after the political breakthrough, when the censorship of the Polish People’s Republic definitively stopped blocking the written word. Previously, the work had been available only in the second circulation (since 1978) or in copies imported from abroad. The first Paris edition was published in 1953 by the Literary Institute as the third volume of the Library of “Culture.”
“Captive Mind” is a vivisection of the Stalinist system made on the example of four model attitudes of Polish writers, hidden under ancient code names: Alpha (Jerzy Andrzejewski), Beta (Tadeusz Borowski), Gamma (Jerzy Putrament) and Delta (Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski). Thanks to this book, two terms have permanently entered the international language of political science: ketman – the art of masking one’s true views against a totalitarian system – and murti-bing – a metaphor for ideological conscientization. Both terms are still used today to describe the mechanisms of submission to authority.
The book block and original 1989 booklet cover are preserved in very good condition. The copy was hand-bound in an exclusive natural leather binding by the Polish Antiquarian Bookbindery – the original publisher’s cover rests inside the binding, protected and preserved for future generations. A unique combination of a historical document and a work of bookbinding art.
For collectors of autographs of Nobel Prize winners, lovers of post-war European history and collectors of Polish first prints – an absolutely unique item.

15502-20-A-X