"I HOPE I WILL BE ABLE TO CONFIDE EVERYTHING TO YOU, AS I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO CONFIDE IN ANYONE": FIRST EDITION OF ANNE FRANK'S DIARY, HET ACHTERHUIS, 1947

FRANK, Anne. Het Achterhuis. Amsterdam: Contact, (1947). Octavo, original white and russet paper boards. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $13,500.

First edition of Anne Frank's diary, in the original Dutch, one of only 1500 copies printed.

Anne began her new diary on her 13th birthday, June 12, 1942, by writing, "I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support." (Page 1 bears a facsimile of this entry.) Only a month later, Anne and her family would go into hiding. Anne envisioned the future publication of her diary—in fact, she began editing the text before the family's arrest on August 4, 1944 (three days after the diary's last entry)—and chose the title Het Achterhuis (The House Behind) herself. After its initial release, the book was translated and published in more than 60 languages. Upon its publication in English, Eleanor Roosevelt called the diary "one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war." It remains one of the most widely read books in the world. "Anne Frank's diary is too tenderly intimate a book to be frozen with the label 'classic,' and yet no lesser designation serves" (Books of the Century, 180). Illustrated with halftone frontispiece portrait, two photographs of interiors, and two facsimiles. Text in Dutch. Without the exceptionally rare dust jacket. New York Public Library's Books of the Century, 178. Karolides, Bald & Sova, 339-41. Owner inscription dated year of publication. Small bookseller stamp.

Tape repair to gutter of frontispiece and title page. Light sunning and staining to fragile paper spine, though book generally fresh. Near-fine condition.