Adolf Hitler – My Struggle – The Paternoster Library No. II (June 1936)

My Struggle by Adolf Hitler, the abridged English translation of Mein Kampf, issued as Number II in The Paternoster Library by Hurst & Blackett Ltd., 34 Paternoster Row, London. The printing history on the reverse of the title page records first publication at 18/- net in October 1933, ten impressions to January 1934, a cheap edition in October 1935, and further impressions in December 1935, March 1936 and June 1936. This copy is the June 1936 impression, the title page marked “17th Thousand”. Bound in green cloth with titles in white to the front board and spine, with a frontispiece portrait.

Hurst & Blackett first published this authorised abridged translation in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power; a complete English translation was not permitted at the time. Hurst & Blackett’s premises at Paternoster Row were destroyed by German bombing in 1940.

Copies of this edition are of historical interest as a record of how the book was presented to British and Commonwealth readers in the mid-1930s, before the Second World War. The publisher’s own promotional text and the press notices printed in the preliminaries illustrate the reception of the book in Britain at the time.

Offered as a historical document for collectors and students of the Second World War, inter-war European politics, the history of propaganda and the history of publishing.

Condition – Very Good

Green cloth boards with titles in white. The boards show chafing to the edges of both the front and rear boards, some creasing to the cloth, and evidence of past damp to the front board. The cloth is split along part of the front joint near the head of the spine. Internally, foxing is present to the endpapers, preliminaries and throughout, with damp staining to the front free endpaper and title page. Early ink inscription and ownership signature to the front free endpaper. The binding remains intact.