China Today In Art Drawings (With Prospectus, And Inscribed At Length From Artist To William Gropper)

Calcutta India: The Book Emporium / Sasadhar Chakravarty / Kalika Press, 1944. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 51 Pp. White Boards. First Printing, 1944. Very Scarce, Worldcat Shows Only Four Institutional Holdings. Light Usage. Dust Jacket Priced Rs 6/-, 7S6d. Dust Jacket Worn, Small Chips At Edges. Book Inscribed At Length By Yeh Chien-Yu And Dated April 1947 In New York City Ny, With Much Additional Text In Chinese And The Artist's Red Stamp. Also With An Extra Set Of Pp. Iii-Vi, The Foreword And Introduction, Which Apparently Were Used As A Prospectus For The Book.Ye Qianyu (Or, Yeh Ch'ien-Yü; Born Ye Lunqi (???); 1907 -1995) Was A Chinese Painter And Pioneering Manhua Artist. In April 1927,Ye Qianyu, Together With Fellow Cartoonists Huang Wennong And Lu Shaofei Released A Publication Dedicated To Manhua, Called Shanghai Manhua (Or Shanghai Sketch). The Original Three, Joined By Eight More Artists Including Zhang Guangyu, Ding Song, And Wang Dunqing, Formed The Shanghai Sketch Society (Also Translated As Shanghai Cartoon Association) In The Autumn Of 1927, China's First Association Dedicated To Manhua. The Association Successfully Relaunched The Shanghai Manhua On 21 April 1928. Ye Drew Several Covers For The Magazine And The Back Page Of The Publication Carried His Comic Strip, Mr. Wang. Inspired By The American Strip Bringing Up Father And Portraying The Daily Life Of The Middle And Lower Classes Of Shanghai, Mr. Wang Became One Of China's Most Famous Cartoons, Eventually Being Made Into 11 Films In The 1930S And 40S. In June 1930 Shanghai Manhua Was Merged Into Modern Pictorial, ????), Of Which Ye Became An Editor While Continuing His Mr. Wang Series. When Japan Invaded China And Occupied Shanghai In 1937, Ye Qianyu, Together With A Group Of Fellow Shanghai Cartoonists, Formed The "National Salvation Cartoon Propaganda Corps", Which Included Well-Known Artists Zhang Leping, Lu Zhixiang, Te Wei, And Hu Kao. Ye's Lover, Liang Baibo, Was The Only Female Member. It Was Funded By The Kuomintang Government. Ye Went To Hong Kong Prior To Its Fall To The Japanese In December 1941. In 1943 He Temporarily Worked For The Us General Joseph Stilwell As A War Correspondent In India. Throughout His Travels He Drew Many Sketches Of Wartime Scenes, Including A Series Entitled Escape From Hong Kong. After The Surrender Of Japan In 1945, Ye Qianyu Went To The United States, Where He Held A Series Of Exhibitions To Show And Sell His Artworks. In 1947, Ye Became A Professor At The Beijing Art Academy. When The Cultural Revolution Began In 1966, Ye Qianyu Was Accused Of Being A Kuomintang (Kmt) Agent And Was Imprisoned For Seven Years. Ye Qianyu Was Politically Rehabilitated In 1979. Ye Qianyu Was Married Three Times. In 1940 Ye Qianyu Met The Dancer Dai Ailian In Hong Kong. Dai Ailian Lived Until 2006, And Is Now Known As The "Mother Of Chinese Ballet". Ye's Last Wife Was Wang Renmei, A Famous Actress Who Had Been Previously Married To The "Film Emperor" Jin Yan. Amiya Chandra Chakravarty (1901-1986) Was Literary Secretary To Rabindranath Tagore From 1924 To 1933. He Was Also A Close Associate Of Mahatma Gandhi, Walking With Gandhi In The Salt March Of 1930. Following His 1933 Journey With Tagore, He Left India To Study At Oxford University, And In 1937 Earned A D.Phil. He Moved Back To India In 1940 To Become A Professor Of English At The University Of Calcutta. In 1948, Chakravarty Moved To The Us To Join The Department Of English In Howard University, Became A Fellow Of The Institute For Advanced Study In Princeton During 1950-51, And A Professor At Many Universities. He Wrote Both Poetry And Prose And A Number Of Articles In Journals. He Wrote Many Verse Collections In Bengali. His Poetry Reflects Idealism, Humanism And A Great Love Of Nature And Beauty. He Served As A Delegate To The United Nations For India Chakaravarty Edited A Number Of English Translations Of Tagore's Works.