PELLEY, William Dudley. Golden Rubbish. New York: G. P. Putnam’s. 1929. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s orange cloth lettered in gilt to the spine and upper board, in the striking dust jacket signed, it appears, by initials ‘CKS’ or similar. A very good copy, the cloth quite clean, the gilt a little dulled, upper board a little dirt marked. The binding tight and square, the top edge spotted and dust-marked. From the library of Italian bibliophile Giuseppe Orlando, with his small library stamp and ink date of acquisition hand-written at title page top, but lacking his customary bookplate depicting Icarus. The dust jacket unclipped ($2.00 net), gently nicked and chipped at corners, tips and edges, spine panel just a trifle dulled, but a pleasing copy.
An unusual novel written as Pelley transitioned from a highly-rated novelist, journalist and filmographer to a paranoid, probably-pathologically insane fascist, who shortly after publication founded the Christian Party, a far-right anti-semitic organisation which wholly agreed with Nazi ideals. Hailing from a staunch Methodist Massachusetts family, Pelley found early success, financial security, and had a family on the way. Yet the death of his infant daughter and the crippling debt of medical bills the illness racked up seemed to be a driving force for his antagonistic life therein. He claimed to have experienced a life-altering ‘near-death experience’ after reading Emerson, and again, and two other times, claiming to have visited Heaven where he spoke to God. He wrote an article about this in his friend’s magazine, entitled ‘Seven Minutes in Eternity: The Amazing Experience That Made Me Over’. In the late 20s, he was finding his Christian vision of the future hard to spread, and opted to write fiction which instead subtly loaded the propaganda into the plot, as with this novel. By the early 30s and with fascism on the rise across Europe, Pelley founded his own far-right organisation, his focus anti-semitism and exploring Spiritualism through Christianity—he felt his conversations with God encouraged him to cleanse the United States of America, and, cult-like, predicted a Second Coming in 2001. He founded a Bible College and charged people access, then founded the Silver Legion of America one day after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. He was later arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for sedition charges. When he served his time and with a lifetime ban on political office, he lived quite quietly until his death. A curious, tragic character, and an unusual, scarce volume whose best attribute might well be the striking dust jacket design or the title itself.
PELLEY, William Dudley. Golden Rubbish. New York: G. P. Putnam’s. 1929. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s orange cloth lettered in gilt to the spine and upper board, in the striking dust jacket signed, it appears, by initials ‘CKS’ or similar. A very good copy, the cloth quite clean, the gilt a little dulled, upper board a little dirt marked. The binding tight and square, the top edge spotted and dust-marked. From the library of Italian bibliophile Giuseppe Orlando, with his small library stamp and ink date of acquisition hand-written at title page top, but lacking his customary bookplate depicting Icarus. The dust jacket unclipped ($2.00 net), gently nicked and chipped at corners, tips and edges, spine panel just a trifle dulled, but a pleasing copy.
An unusual novel written as Pelley transitioned from a highly-rated novelist, journalist and filmographer to a paranoid, probably-pathologically insane fascist, who shortly after publication founded the Christian Party, a far-right anti-semitic organisation which wholly agreed with Nazi ideals. Hailing from a staunch Methodist Massachusetts family, Pelley found early success, financial security, and had a family on the way. Yet the death of his infant daughter and the crippling debt of medical bills the illness racked up seemed to be a driving force for his antagonistic life therein. He claimed to have experienced a life-altering ‘near-death experience’ after reading Emerson, and again, and two other times, claiming to have visited Heaven where he spoke to God. He wrote an article about this in his friend’s magazine, entitled ‘Seven Minutes in Eternity: The Amazing Experience That Made Me Over’. In the late 20s, he was finding his Christian vision of the future hard to spread, and opted to write fiction which instead subtly loaded the propaganda into the plot, as with this novel. By the early 30s and with fascism on the rise across Europe, Pelley founded his own far-right organisation, his focus anti-semitism and exploring Spiritualism through Christianity—he felt his conversations with God encouraged him to cleanse the United States of America, and, cult-like, predicted a Second Coming in 2001. He founded a Bible College and charged people access, then founded the Silver Legion of America one day after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. He was later arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for sedition charges. When he served his time and with a lifetime ban on political office, he lived quite quietly until his death. A curious, tragic character, and an unusual, scarce volume whose best attribute might well be the striking dust jacket design or the title itself.
