Se questo è un uomo [If This Is a Man]

(Torino): Einaudi, 1963. Fourth edition of Levi's first masterpiece, an account of the year he spent as a prisoner in Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Signed by Levi on the front free-endpaper. Stoddard notes in "Primo Levi" (The Book Collector, Winter 2006, p.525) that Levi "sent his manuscript to many publishers, including the great Piedmont house of Einaudi, where the manuscript was read and rejected by Natalia Ginsburg. Ironically, it was accepted by Franco Antonicelli, whose publishing house Francesco De Silva issued it in a series called 'Biblioteca Leone Ginzburg' [in an edition of 2000 copies in 1947], memorializing Natalia's husband, martyr to the German occupation of Italy. Cocked, ink owner's name on front pastedown, otherwise a very good copy in a somewhat worn jacket, reinforced with cellotape in a few places. From the library of Dr Cesare Lombroso, longtime faculty member of Harvard's Medical School. Signed copies of Se questo è un uomo are rare. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. Cocked, ink owner's name on front pastedown, otherwise a very good copy in a somewhat worn jacket, reinforced with cellotape in a few places. From the library of Dr Cesare Lombroso, longtime faculty member of Harvard's Medical School. Signed copies of Se questo è un uomo are rare.