The Black International. Nos. 1-20 (Complete)

Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius, 1941-46. Twenty octavo pamphlets (21.5cm) in original staple-bound wrappers; 32pp per issue. Most in uniform slate-gray wraps; a few in tan or orange (no priority noted). A few with external fading; all with age-toning to text; two with contemporary reader's annotations in margins. Very Good overall.

A sustained polemic against the Roman Catholic Church, centered on Rome's complicity in the rise of European Fascism before and during the Second World War. Issued in two Series, in a total of twenty volumes over a period of two years (save the final volume which, though written in 1942, was delayed four years in publication (truncated) after the manuscript was seized by British censors).

McCabe (1867-1955), an ordained Roman Catholic priest who abandoned the faith in his thirties, devoted the second two-thirds of his life to denouncing Catholicism, Christian religion, and religion and spiritualism more generally. He became perhaps the leading, or at least the most prolific, English-language freethought author of the 20th century – more than 500 works appeared under his name between the turn of the century and his death in 1955. Many were issued by the American publisher Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, whose pamphlets, published by the tens of thousands, brought McCabe's message to an enormous audience in America. Like many Haldeman-Julius publications, though published in vast quantities, original issues are now uncommon in good condition. The current series seldom seen in collected form, especially in original wrappers.

Includes the following titles, in order of publication (nos. 1-4 published in 1941; remainder dated 1942, save for v.20, published in 1946):

1. The Vatican's Last Crime; how the Black International joined the world-plot against freedom, liberalism, and democracy;
2. How the Pope of Peace Traded in Blood: the Red Pope;
3. The Pope Helps Hitler to World-Power: how the Cross courted the Swastika for eight years;
4. The Vatican Buries International Law: how Mussolini and the Yellow Brother got their share;
5. Hitler Dupes the Vatican: how the papacy was sold in Austria and sold civilization in Czechoslovakia;
6. The War And Papal Intrigue: how the new pope talked peace and worked for war;
7. The Pious Traitors of Belgium and France: how the preaching of peace fizzled out, and why;
8. The Pope and the Italian Jackal: how Mussolini's invincible legions were blessed;
9. Atheist Russia Shakes the World: how the wicked Bolsheviks are to save our Christian civilization;
10. Fascist Romanism Defies Civilization: how the pope keeps to the plot while the world curses it;
11. The Totalitarian Church of Rome: its Fuehrer, its Gauleiter, its Gestapo, and its money-box;
12. The Tyranny of the Clerical Gestapo: Catholics the most priest-ridden of al people;
13. Rome Puts a Blight on Culture: the Roman church the poorest in culture and richest in crime;
14. The Church the Enemy of the Workers: Rome is the national ally of all exploiters;
15. The Church Defies Modern Life: one sound Catholic boast - we never change;
16. The Holy Faith of Romanists: how Catholics are hyipnotized about their weird creed;
17. How the Faith is Protected: the unique apparatus of the Black International to secure loyalty;
18. The Artistic Sterility of the Church: how the Church stupefies folk by crude emotionalism;
19. The Fruits of Romanism: the Catholic Church does far more harm than good;
20. Rome Irreconcilable With Democracy: the Goebbelisms of American Catholic writers [note: Vols. 1-19 all published with uniform series title "The Black International"; this final volume published four years later, without the series title, but making reference to the fact in its Preface]. (Inventory #: 82981)