Le Bookiniste

Minutes of a Communist Cell on Art: Anonymous, but Believed Unquestionably Authentic by Competent Authorities Reveals the Party's Tactic re: "Modern Art" [Cover Title]

Williams, Wheeler, E. Merrill Root, et al.

Fullerton, California: Education Information, Inc., 1960. First Edition.

Small Quarto (10 5/8 x 8 1/4 inches; 271 x 212 mm), 21 pages, in stapled illustrated wrappers.

A "second report on modern art" issued by Education Information, Inc., an Orange County, California, anti-communist outfit. The main highlight: the purported minutes of a Communist cell comprising artists and writers: "PROGRAM: Remove all inspiring and beautiful art from all exhibits and substitute degenerate art in its place....Keep rational art out of all public exhibits -- allow only empty or distorted art to be shown in museums, dealers' exhibits....Tie junk together and set it up as sculpture."

There's plenty more in this vein. The woman who took these notes -- "a friend of truth and decency" -- supposedly mailed them to the right-wing sculptor Wheeler Williams, who was active in anticommunist politics. Williams provides a Foreword to the notes, saying he believes they're authentic. He says he shared the notes with colleagues and some former FBI undercover agents, all of whom apparently believe the notes are genuine.

Also in this pamphlet are articles on "subversion in art," lengthy excerpts from Williams's testimony to Congress on the Soviet uses of art, and a piece by E. Merrill Root on conservative philosophy.

OCLC records around a dozen institutional holdings, but it is quite scarce in commerce. 

CONDITION: Vertical fold throughout, original mailing label and partially removed tape to lower wrapper, extremities worn from handling, staples a bit rusted. Otherwise, Very Good. Item #2275

Price: $295.00