S.O.S. GENEVA. WITH TWENTY-NINE DRAWINGS BY WILLIAM PÈNE DU BOIS
New York: Viking Press, 1939. Item #43552
1st English-Language Edition (May be simultaneous with or even predate the 1st German-language edition). Later library cloth binding, 8vo, 246 pages. Spalek & Srelka (Deutschsprachige Exilliterature seit 1933, New York; I:794ff; Deutschsprachige Exilliterature seit 1933, Bibliographien: USA p.1441).
Holocaust-era juvenile novel written by 2 Gay German Jewish exiles to promote peace and international cooperation on the eve of WW II.
The story follows the adventures of a group of children who are evacuated from their homeland of Romania to Switzerland because their country is hit by a disastrous flood. In Switzerland they hear about the League of Nations and set off to Geneva to ask for help for their country and their relatives. The children win support from many corners and, in the end, they win the support they were seeking–a metaphor for countries uniting to stop the flood that has already begun to hit Europe.
According to the jacket, the tale was written on a bet that the authors "could not write an exciting book about peace."
Plant (aka Plaut) and Seidlin (aka Koplowitz) worked together on the book after fleeing Nazi Germany where they were in danger not only as Jews but also as open out homosexuals.
After emigrating to New York and Americanizing their names in 1938, Plant and Seidlin began intensive English language learning, part of which involved the writing of this very book. Both writers went on to long academic careers in the U.S., with Plant achieving prominence with his seminal study of the Nazi persecution of gay people, titled, The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals (1986).
A German-language version was published around the same time in Geneva under the title, S.O.S. Genf. The American edition includes color illustrations by William Pène Du Bois which were not used in the Swiss edition.
Illustrator William Sherman Pène du Bois (1916-1993) "was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He is best known for The Twenty-One Balloons, published in April 1947 by Viking Press, for which he won the 1948 Newbery Medal. He was twice a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal for illustrating books written by others, and the two Caldecott Honor picture books, which he also wrote.
From 1953 to 1960, Pène du Bois was art editor of The Paris Review, working alongside founder and editor George Plimpton" (Wikipedia).
Though distributed by a mainstream commercial publisher, the American edition comes up surprisingly rarely.
SUBJECT(S): Children -- Romania -- Juvenile fiction. Floods -- Inondations -- Romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse. Switzerland -- Juvenile fiction. OCLC: 5989347, with OCLC listing only 17 copies in US libraries.
Ex-library with usual markings to library binding, but original text block remains clean save for marks on the lower margin of the title page. Good Condition. (BER-1) (Holo2-162-17-GGWWD-’abcclex).
Price: $350.00