Rare Prototype of the “Little Red Book”, 351pp
MAO (Zedong).

Mao Zhuxi Yulu [Quotations of Chairman Mao].

[Shenyang]:  no imprint, but title-page dated May 1964.

12mo, [2]ff title + endorsement leaf printed in red ink, 9pp table of contents, 351pp text with quotations divided into five thematic divisions comprising 16 chapters and 64 sections; tan wrappers with printed title in red with a small red star below.

$ 15,000.
EXTREMELY RARE, PROTOTYPE OF THE LITTLE RED BOOK, substantially different from the regular publication though bearing the same title and a single red star motif on the front cover, but with a completely different size and pagination, without the portrait of Mao or epigraph from Karl Marx; and Lin Biao’s endorsement unsigned and in regular characters.  The title-page is dated the same as the dated preface in the traditional undated first printing created for the People’s Liberation Army (250pp bound in printed paper wrappers or red vinyl).
First state of this prototype, with printed errata slip laid in. Signed in ink “Ren Zhongya” [in Chinese Characters] on title-page.