Nov 14, 2017 - Sale 2462

Sale 2462 - Lot 143

Price Realized: $ 18,200
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
FRANK, ANNE. Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven van 12 Juni 1942-1 Augustus 1944 ["The House Behind: Diary Entries."] Illustrated with halftone frontispiece author portrait, 2 photographic reproductions of the interior of the house, 1 floor plan, and 2 facsimiles from the diary. Original Dutch text. 8vo, original white and russet paper boards, spine slightly rubbed at head and toned as usual with similar discoloration affecting portions of front and rear boards; dust jacket, head and foot of spine panel chipped with loss of letters (retaining some loose fragments), fold corners nicked, short closed tears, few corner creases, folds rubbed, toned; contents show usual browning. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Contact, (1947)

Additional Details

the true first edition of anne frank's diary, and the first auction appearance of this title in the exceedingly rare and unrestored first issue dust jacket; with no copies traced on ABPC or Rare Book Hub. One of only 1500 copies printed. After its initial release, the book was translated and published in more than 60 languages. Upon its publication in English, Eleanor Roosevelt called the diary "one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war." It remains one of the most widely read books in the world. "Anne Frank's diary is too tenderly intimate a book to be frozen with the label 'classic,' and yet no lesser designation serves. There is anguish in the thought of how much creative power, how much sheer beauty of living, was cut off through genocide. But through her diary Anne goes on living" (Books of the Century, 180, 183). presumably the first auction appearance of the first edition in the first issue dust jacket, with the author's name lettered in yellow on the front panel, later issues printed in blue.