Author: Pozner, Vladimir
Title: Les Etats Desunis. Reportage (the Disunited States. A Reportage) [an Association Copy]
Description: Paris, Les editions Denoel, 1938. Review Copy. Review copy; 7 3/4 x 5 1/2; pp. [5], 8-308, [2]; beige wraps, illustrated in black and red; partially unopened; hinges a bit weak (text block still securely attached); deckled fore-edge a bit brittle; small nicks to tips of spine; light, uniform age-toning; very good condition. Signed and inscribed on the half-title page by Vladimir Pozner to Hungarian-British author and journalist Arthur Koestler (1905 - 1983). Vladimir Solomonovich Pozner (1905 - 1992) was a Russian-Jewish-French writer and translator. Born in Paris, Pozner spent his childhood in Russia and studied in Leningrad, where he frequently gathered with Aleksandr Blok, Anna Akhmatova, Mayakovsky, etc. to read and discuss poetry. He returned to Paris in 1921, where he began writing for several left wing journals and published his first book of poetry - "Poemes de circonstances" - based on his experiences as a Russian Jew in exile. A staunch Communist sympathizer, mostly due to having met and being influenced by Maxim Gorky, Pozner threw himself into helping refugees fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s. During that time, he also manned an obscure, Communist press agency, together with Arthur Koestler and Soviet Intelligence Agent Alexander Rado (1899 - 1981). Pozner went to the US several times, conducting research for his current, in essence, leftist travelogue, documenting racism, inequality, everyday life and its characters, the gangsters, the starlets, and the poor workers. It would become an instant success and later, would be the base of the Oscar-nominated, Film noir "The Dark Mirror" (1946). Despite its success, the book was not translated into English until 2014. Although good friends, co-workers, and supporters, Arthur Koestler and Pozner would eventually have a falling-out, after the former's disenchantment with the Communist ideology. Koestler would put down in his autobiographical "The Invisible Writing," about Pozner: "He has since written..some violent attacks against me." . Very good .

Keywords: Americana, Leftist


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