“The present volume is the authorized English translation of the first Chinese edition of the fifth volume of the Selected Works of Mao Tsetung, published in April 1977 by the People's Publishing House, Peking.” (from the copyright page)
First edition. Softcover with paper flaps. 518 numbered pages. Condition is very good, commensurate with age: a small chip to the spine, two small tears at the top edge of the front cover, and some discoloration to the front cover.
Front matter includes a blank flyleaf, followed by a tipped-in leaf printed in red with the slogan “Workers of All Countries, Unite!” A tipped-in portrait illustration of the author, protected by an onionskin guard, follows. Title page bears red spot-color.
We note that a later edition was issued by Foreign Languages Press, Paris, in 2001; this copy is the original first edition, not a facsimile or later reprint.
A representative passage from the text (page 397) reads:
After liberation, we rooted out a number of counterrevolutionaries. Some were sentenced to death for major crimes. This was absolutely necessary, it was the demand of the masses, and it was done to free them from long years of oppression by the counter-revolutionaries and all kinds of local tyrants, in other words, to liberate the productive forces.
Two pages in the rear matter bear small round red stamps, one encircling the number 28 and the other encircling what seems to be the number 13. We speculate that these are marks indicating inspection, customs clearance, or approval by a censoring board. The rear cover carries an adhesive label from distributor China Books & Periodicals, Inc. Dimensions are 8.75" w, 6" tall, 1.5" thick.
