Nhật ký trong tù [= Prison diary]

[Hà Nội]: Văn hóa Viện văn học, 1960. First edition, first printing in Vietnamese of Ho's prison meditations kept while in a Chinese prison during World War II; 8vo, pp. 244, [8]; mounted frontispiece portrait of Ho with facsimile signature beneath; one other mounted portrait of Ho, and a mounted facsimile; old ownership stamp on rear flyleaf; original printed wrappers bound in contemporary and likely original three-quarter red cloth and marbled boards, gilt-lettered spine; text a bit toned and spine slightly rubbed; all else very good. At least two issues of this edition are known, one measuring 24 cm and another at 19 cm. There were also a Chinese edition and French edition published the same year Written in Chinese between August 28, 1942 and September 10, 1943, when Ho Chi Minh was a prisoner of Chiang Kai-shek's police in China. Consists of 115 verses--quatrains and Tang poems in the classical Chinese style. These poems at times witty, at other moments despairing, chronicle Ho's prison life. This 1960 Hanoi edition is the first that was commercially published. Of this issue, only Cornell in the U.S. in OCLC.