Het Achterhuis

Anne FRANK

Item#: 105043 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Het Achterhuis

“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 chemise and clamshell box.

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… There is anguish in the thought of how much creative power, how much sheer beauty of living, was cut off through genocide. But through her diary Anne goes on living" (Books of the Century, 180, 183). 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.

Expected light marginal embrowning. Minor marginal staining to gutters of first few leaves. Modest toning and staining to spine, light soiling and rubbing to boards. A desirable copy of a rare and important first edition, in extremely good condition.

add to my wishlist ask an Expert