Velká zkouska demokracií

Praha (Prague): Klub Socialisticke Kultury, 1947. Acceptable. 23 cm; 116, [2] pages. Printed wraps designed by Karel Teige. Wraps beginning to separate from text block at spine; digits penned in ink in corner of upper wrap, and small abrasion to wrap on spine. Text unmarked and unblemished.

First edition in Czech of the French philosopher's 1942 essay on the principles of democracy. Cover design by avant-garde artist Karel Teige. After welcoming the Soviet army as liberators, Teige was silenced by the Communist government in 1948. In 1951 he died of a heart attack, said to be a result of a ferocious Soviet press campaign against him as a 'Trotskyite degenerate,' his papers were destroyed by the secret police, and his published work was suppressed for decades.