Illusion and Reality; A Study of the Sources of Poetry

New York: International Publishers, 1947. Hardcover. Fine/Good+. Octavo size, 346 pp. Per Wikipedia, "Christopher Caudwell was the pseudonym of Christopher St John Sprigg (20 October 1907 - 13 February 1937), a British Marxist writer, literary critic, intellectual and activist..published The Crisis of Physics in 1936... According to Marxist historian Helena Sheehan, Caudwell became interested in Marxism in 1934 and began to study it with "extraordinary intensity". In the summer of 1935, he wrote [Illusion and Reality] his first Marxist book...According to the socialist magazine Monthly Review, Caudwell on 12 February 1937 "was killed by fascists in the valley of Jarama during the Spanish Civil War. He died at a machine gun post, guarding the retreat of his comrades in the British Battalion of the International Brigade.

The Marxist historian E. P. Thompson wrote of Caudwell, "It is not difficult to see Caudwell as a phenomenon - as an extraordinary shooting-star crossing England's empirical night - as a premonitory sign of a more sophisticated Marxism whose true annunciation was delayed until the Sixties.... The Marxist academic John Bellamy Foster similarly credited Caudwell with 'breathtaking intellectual achievements in a brief period of time'."

From the jacket flap, "Far more than merely 'a study in the sources of poetry,' this book presents a whole rounded philosophy of art...[the book] begins with a study of the origins of the arts in primitive tribal life. It then discusses the development of English Poetry from Shakespeare to modern times...It goes on to study the language of poetry, the difference between art and science, and the role of both art and science in everyday life. Finally, it presents a detailed analysis of modern man's consciousness of the world...reflected in modern art, new psychological theories, and the physics of Einstein and Planck."

___DESCRIPTION: Bound in navy blue cloth over boards, silver lettering stamped on spine, with a seven-page graph on pp. 117-122; octavo size (8 5/8" x 5 1/2"), pagination: [i-iv] [1-3] 4-342. Dust jacket is unclipped, front cover and spine have blue border surrounding black type, the original pricing and book summary on front flap, the book "Art and Society" is summarized on rear flap, list of International Publisher titles beginning with 'Literature and Art' by Marx Engels on rear panel.

___CONDITION: Volume is fine overall, with clean boards, straight corners with minimal rubbing and slight bumping to top and bottom edge of spine, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and tight, age-toned pages are without marks or creases, and entirely free of prior owner markings. Dust jacket a bit better than good with all component parts present and attached, with some very small chips at head and tail of spine, two closed tears (the longest approx 3") to top of rear panel, spine has sunned.

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