Seifert, Jaroslav, editor; Frans Masereel and František Bidlo, artists.

[CZECH INTERWAR COMMUNISM – AVANT-GARDE – FRANS MASEREEL] 1. Máj 1935 [May 1, 1935].

Praha: Ústřední dělnické knihkupectví a nakladatelství (Ant. Svěcený), 1935. Quarto (29.8 × 23 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial self-wrappers; 13, [3] pp. Illustrations throughout. Light soil and foxing to wrappers, else very good. Item #55414

A single issue of this May Day jubilee publication of the Social Democratic Workers Party of Czechoslovakia, illustrated with reproductions of woodcuts by Frans Masereel (1889–1972) and political caricatures by František Bidlo (1895–1945). Published by the Central Workers’ Publishing House founded by Antonin Svěcený (1871–1941), the socialist activist and eventual Senator in the Czechoslovak General Assembly representing the Social Democratic Workers Party. Frans Masereel’s famous 1922 cycle Ballad of a Worker’s Life is presented in the issue alongside inspirational speeches by Vaclav Patzak, a leading figure of the interwar Social Democratic Worker’s Party, and an organizer of International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The communist journalist and poet Jaroslav Seifert (1901–1986) edited the issue. Seifert was also the founder of the avant-garde journal Devětsil (1920), and later a Nobel Laureate (in 1984).

As of October 2025, KVK, OCLC show no copies of this issue in North America.

Price: €250.00

other currencies