first edition Hardcover
1941 · [New York
by ROSENFIELD, Leonora Cohen
[New York: Oxford University Press, 1941. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Original brass binding die stamp for the front board of the book. Approximately 3.5" x 1.5". The metal die shows traces tarnish, else about fine. The die reads (in reverse lettering): "Rosenfield / From Beast-Machine / to Man-Machine". [With]: Original brass binding die stamp for the spine of the book. Approximately 1.25" x 2.25". The metal die shows traces tarnish, else about fine. The die reads (in reverse lettering): "From Beast- / Machine / to Man- / Machine / Rosenfield". The provenance presents a mildly interesting story: a local colleague was buying books out of the trunk of a gentleman's car and came across a bag of brass die-stamps from the Oxford University Press from the late 1930s through the early 1950s, when Oxford did much of their printing in the U.S. My colleague inquired and the gentleman revealed that his next stop was the scrap yard where he was going to sell the dies to be melted down for the brass. My colleague paid him double the scrap price for them. We paid a bit more. In any event, unique artifacts of this book of philosophy by the professor from the University of Maryland. Rosenfield was also the daughter of Morris Raphael Cohen, one of the most distinguished American philosophers, especially of law, of the first half of the twentieth century. (Inventory #: 406264)