The Estivation of Two Mao Tzu. Being an informal and occasionally frivolous account of our vacation in China during the Summer of 1934.

CARY, Melbert B., Jr.

Published by New York: The Press of the Woolly Whale, 1935

First edition, limited issue, number 151 of 250 copies printed on Kawara paper. This is an account of the author's travels in China only three years after the Japanese first invaded Manchuria. Melbert B. Cary, Jr (1892-1941) first visited China in 1922 and 1923 but returned a decade later to see the country more thoroughly. His narrative revolves around his experiences in three cities: Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong, as well as his travels up the Yangtze River. He was particularly enamoured of Beijing, calling it "the spot before all others in China that offers most to the traveller from the west" (p. 84). His visit took place in the aftermath of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the bombing of Zhabei in January 1932, a period of strong anti-Japanese sentiment. He describes this situation at the end of the volume, noting that "there is no longer any doubt that Japan intends to control the destiny of the Far East" (p. 124), and predicting that neither China nor Russia would be able to prevent it. Cary was the founder of the quirkily named Press of the Woolly Whale, a private press focused on works that he believed were unjustly overlooked. Its most famous volume, The Missing Gutenberg Wood Blocks (1940), contained 20 fabricated prints illustrating Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. Quarto. Colour double-page map frontispiece of America overlayed onto China, map in text; title page and running titles in red and black. Original yellow quarter cloth, Japanese-style fukuro-toji binding, spine ends capped in purple cloth, blue card boards, paper label to front wrapper lettered in black and decorated in red. Extremities lightly rubbed, small chip and crack to front board, edges lightly sunned, contents bright: a very good copy. Seller Inventory # 178029

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Estivation of Two Mao Tzu. Being an ...
Publisher: New York: The Press of the Woolly Whale, 1935
Edition: 1st Edition