"AUTHOR'S FRIEND, NEW YORKER, BOOK MAKER, PHILOSOPHER, GIN DRINKER": RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION FIRST EDITION OF CONTROVERSIAL RADICAL WRITER MIKE GOLD'S FIRST BOOK, 120 MILLION, 1929, INSCRIBED BY HIM TO CO-FOUNDER OF INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS

GOLD, Mike. 120 Million. New York: International, (1929). Octavo, original black cloth. $1650.

First edition of the first book by controversial radical Mike Gold, published at the cusp of the Great Depression, an outstanding presentation/association copy inscribed by him to influential New York publisher and editor, Albert "Pete," Gross, inscribed by Gold along an entire page, "To Pete Gross—Lion Tamer, Father, Author's Friend, New Yorker, Book Maker, Philosopher, Gin Drinker and Puritan, from a fellow bum Mike Gold," featuring 20 early passionate writings by Gold on Black Americans, the I.W.W., immigrants, miners, strikers and more.

Born Itzok Isaac Granich, Jewish American Mike Gold was a "radical’s radical.. born to poverty, reared in poverty and educated by poverty" (Folsom, Education of Mike Gold, 224). A founding co-editor of New Masses in 1926 before becoming its sole editor, Gold made an major impact that was early and unusually noted by Time magazine, which declared: "40 times he has been chased by cops for taking part in street demonstrations; 20 strikes have had his help." Confrontational and controversial, Gold was at the forefront of an emerging literary tradition that launched works by Richard Wright, Tillie Olsen, Henry Roth, John Fante, H.T. Tsiang, Claude McKay and many more. His own writings were pivotal in arguing for art as a "class weapon" (Rideout, Radical Novel, 165)—works that helped launch a movement "nurtured by the cultural politics of the left," the impact of racism, poverty and the rise of fascism, and fiction that was also, often, propelled by the "heroes, plots and language of pulp fiction." To Lionel Trilling, "the importance of the radical movement… cannot be overestimated. It may be said to have created the American intellectual class as we now know it" (Denning, Cultural Front, 240, 3). The 20 works in 120 Million, his first book, includes Gold's writings on Black Americans, immigrants, the I.W.W. and strikers and miners, along with short fiction, dramatic prose and select poems. First edition, first printing: with "Copyright, 1929, by International Publishers Co., Inc/"; no statement of edition or printings. Without very elusive dust jacket. Hanna 1443. The recipient, Albert "Pete" Gross, was a highly influential publisher and editor who co-founded International Publishers in 1924 before becoming am editor at Boni & Liverright in 1924.

Text very fresh, faint edge-wear to spine ends of original cloth. An impressive about-fine inscribed copy.