Les Damnes de la Terre [The Wretched of the Earth]

Paris: Francois Maspero, 1961. Very Good-. Paris: Francois Maspero, 1961. First Edition with October 1961 printing noted in colophon, likely from a print run of 5000 with "5 mille" to rear wrap. Octavo; printed wraps; 242, [6]pp. Wraps scuffed and edgeworn with some creasing. Binding sound though with a slight lean. Contemporary ownership inscription to preliminaries erased though dated December 18th, 1961. Extensive evidence of use to first 100 pages, principally underlining and marking in pen with a couple relevant commentaries in Spanish, one reading, "Reformism is impossible, it would leave the colonial structure standing, untouched!" (our translation).

Overall an About Very Good copy of Fanon's hugely influential anti-colonial work. Blockson calls it, "a book of superlative genius which defied every canon of criticism." He continued, "This, his most famous manifest was written against the background of his Algerian and African experience. He stated that 'he wrote not for Europe but for the Third World.'" We find no copies in auction records or currently in retail; we locate 17 copies in U.S. institutions, with the 1962 second printing being more common.

Blockson 101, Number 92 pp. 66-67.