£30 - £40
Poland. Zahorska (Stefania), Smocza 13: Dramat w 3 aktach, first edition, first impression?, London: Nakładem, "Ńowej Polski", May 1945, 71pp, original publisher's pictorial wrappers designed by W. Machan, chipped, spine perished but holding, split pastedown gutter holding, title-page with two contemporary World War Two related stamps: REFERAT KULTURALNO-OŚWIATOWE: Polskeigo Czerwonego Krzyża [PAPER CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL: Polish Red Cross], & BIBLIOTEKA OFICERSKA [Officers' Library], 8vo
Provenance: 1st) an unknown Polish Armed Forces officers' library, based in the UK contemporary to publication; ink stamp and with associated MS library numbering. 2) Wn. 18/I. Kom* Wart; MS ownership inscription. 3) Ex Libris G.J. Szwarc-Bort/Varsavia-Londinium [Warsaw-London]; mid-20th c pictorial bookplate to pastedown.
Another copy of this title traced in commerce, of the same date, but printed in Rome, is probably the second impression - given the author's exile and residency in London at the date of publication. Stefania Zahorska (1890-1961), also known by her pseudonym Pandora, was a leading Polish Jewish author, art historian, and intellectual, who, after fleeing the German invasions of both Poland and then France, settled in London, where she co-founded The Polish Writers Associated Ltd. The title of this her wartime play is taken from the eponymous Smocza, a street in the Warsaw Ghetto; the location of heroic acts by the Jews and horrific deeds by some German, Polish, Ukrainian, and other gentiles, as recorded in this drama.
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