Criminals of Chicago
1921réf. 25752Boston: Roxburgh Publishing Company 1921. First Edition. Octavo. Blue cloth boards lettered in gilt on spine and front cover; 258pp. Slightly shaken; spine gilt dulled legible with difficulty; internally clean tight and unmarked. A solidly VG copy lacking the presumed dustwrapper. Extremely uncommon survey of vice and crime in the Windy City presented as an exercise in "psychopathology" but written in a flat hard-boiled style by the enigmatic "Prince Immanuel of Jerusalem" whose true identity is shrouded in mystery. This pseudonym turns up in a number of unexpected locations: as a steerage immigrant to California in 1909 where he is described as "the son of the Sultan of Turkey and an Arabian Jewess" and is apparently seeking to raise funds for the construction of a "Universal University" on the site of King Solomon's Temple see The Lompoc California Journal for Jan 3 1909; as the headmaster of an institution called the "University College of Africa" in Cairo Egypt ca. 1917 see Hill The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Papers v.11 p.769n; and as the creator of an invented language "Universal" ca. 1914 see Okrent In the Land of Invented Languages p.296. In the first two sources he is identified as "I.E. Goldreich" and "Eleasar Isaac Goldreich" respectively and he appears to have been a one-time British citizen. He was responsible for at least two other published works: Postcards of Palestine Cairo ca 1912 and Chaos: Written for the Illiterati Columbia City IN: 1947. A scarce and somewhat mysterious Chicago item. Roxburgh Publishing Company unknown books
Lorne Bair Rare Books · États-Unis450,00 $US≈ 401,25 €
