Imperium

London: Westropa Press, 1948. First edition. First edition, first printing. Signed by Francis Parker Yockey under his Norse-influenced pen name at the front free endpaper of each volume; first volume inscribed to former owner, "a good colonial," and dated Sept. 18, 1950. [xii], iv, 405, [3]; [viii], 280 pp. Complete in two volumes, the first bound in publisher's tan cloth lettered in black, front board stamped in blind; the second bound in black cloth lettered in gilt, front board stamped in blind. Fine with typical toning to contents in Very Good+ unsophisticated dust jackets, spines foxed, a few small tears and chips. One of a reputed limitation of only 200 sets, rarely found with jackets, and scarce as hen's teeth signed by this international "man of mystery" who spent his life accumulating aliases and passports, and dodging the FBI. An infamous rarity amongst collectors of extremist literature, self-published, dubbed "America's Mein Kampf" by Anthony Mostrom in the Los Angeles Review of Books. It is perhaps the most theoretically-complex and oft-cited fascist work published after WWII, taking a page from Oswald Spengler more than Hitler. The author, an American who had spent years traveling the globe as a sort of roving representative of the underground Fourth Reich, would briefly make headlines in 1960 when he was arrested in San Francisco by the FBI and took a cyanide pill while in prison, ending his own life a la Hermann Goring. His dalliances with the Soviet Union were no doubt largely the basis of the FBI's interest. As per Imperium Yockey believed in a sort of pan-Europeanism that included the USSR, and is believed to have been actively aiding the Soviets in a sort of sub rosa red/brown alliance against the USA at the height of the Cold War. Imperium was brought back into print in 1962 and has remained so to this day. (Inventory #: 140945861)