Shanghai: City for Sale
Title
Shanghai: City for Sale
Creator
Ernest O. Hauser
Publisher
Shanghai: The Chinese-American Publishing Company, Inc.
Special Authorized Edition / 1st edition
"This authorized Edition for China only is published by special arrangement with the author and the publishers, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York"
"This authorized Edition for China only is published by special arrangement with the author and the publishers, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York"
Date
1940
Description
The adorned cloth calico-grain covers of this book are green, the shade of new leaves in the spring. The title is stamped and filled with black paint in block lettering on the spine.
The only aspect of this book that would qualify as beautiful are the endpapers which are a green on white map of the city, but this map has no roads and only one rail-line is marked. Rather it shows where different ethnicities within the city live. Along the bottom edge is a cityscape showing the outline of important buildings and labeling these shapes. This style of endpaper, popular in the 1940s to about 1951 is known as the Mapback Cover Style.
The paper is made of wood pulp and as is expected for paper made during World War II, it is badly deteriorating and not only is the entire textblock darkened, but flaking has started along the edges. There is an orange stamp on the title page that does not look original and was probably added by a prior owner.
The only aspect of this book that would qualify as beautiful are the endpapers which are a green on white map of the city, but this map has no roads and only one rail-line is marked. Rather it shows where different ethnicities within the city live. Along the bottom edge is a cityscape showing the outline of important buildings and labeling these shapes. This style of endpaper, popular in the 1940s to about 1951 is known as the Mapback Cover Style.
The paper is made of wood pulp and as is expected for paper made during World War II, it is badly deteriorating and not only is the entire textblock darkened, but flaking has started along the edges. There is an orange stamp on the title page that does not look original and was probably added by a prior owner.
There is very little information about this author online. Based on the titles for sale by him on Amazon, it would seem he may have been a travel writer, but only for Italy, China, and perhaps Japan.
Subject
History / Travel
Identifier
SPECIAL DS796 .S2 H3 1940
Format
Hardcover book, 8.5 x 6 inches
Language
English
Relation
This book has another record in the "Beautiful Books" Event Collection.
This book can be seen in the photograph, Display Case 8.
This book can be seen in the photograph, Display Case 8.
Original Format
Book
Collection
Citation
Ernest O. Hauser, “Shanghai: City for Sale,” Beautiful Books in Flagler College's Special Collections, accessed May 15, 2024, https://beautifulbooks.omeka.net/items/show/93.