MAO ZEDONG | Mao Zhu Xi Yu Lu [Quotations of Chairman Mao]. [Shenyang Military District: Air Force Political Department, October - December 1963?]

MAO ZEDONG

Mao Zhu Xi Yu Lu [Quotations of Chairman Mao]. [Shenyang Military District: Air Force Political Department, October - December 1963?]

(5 x 3 5/8 in.; 127 x 93 mm). [2], 7, [1 blank], 351 pp. Unsigned endorsement by Lin Biao printed in red. Original white wrappers printed in red. Spine reinforced, small tear to bottom left front cover and [1], lower back cover stained, minor soiling and rubbing, pale dampstain to edge at front. ownership inscription of Rong Ii on fore-edge. 

Rare prototype version of the Little Red Book, apparently issued some months before mass production began of this seminal work. Designed in a small format, during the Cultural Revolution nearly every character in propaganda posters or pictures was shown with a copy of the book in his or her hand. this copy is substantially different from the formal first edition publication, bearing the same title and single red star motif on the cover, but with completely different size, pagination, and no portrait of Mao. Lin Biao's endorsement is in typeface and unsigned, with the text change to "Chairman Mao's good students" rather than "good soldiers"; this text change appears as early as October 1963 in other dated copies. Lin Biao's endorsement was later often ripped out or defaced in many copies after his possible involvement in an assassination conspiracy was revealed to the people.

A rubber-stamp on the front cover and on the endorsement states: "Gongyong Shuji" (Books for Public Use). The quotations are divided into five thematic divisions comprising 16 chapters and 64 sections. This prototype is mentioned in Guo Dong Peng's "Outline for Cataloguing Mao Zedong's Works" (Harbin 2006, p 71) which identifies two different printings of 351 pp—the present, undated issue with no title-page and a version with an imprint reading as it appears in brackets above. There also exists a 351 pp edition dated May 1964 as described in Justin Schiller's Quotations of Chairman Mao: A short Bibliographical Study (Grolier Club 2014, p 21).