Le Bookiniste

Pruvodce Prahou [Guide to Prague]

Vrázová, Vlasta

[Chicago?]: Ceskoslovenská národní rada v Americe [Czechoslovak National Council of America], 1956.

A scarce satirical guidebook to Prague written by a Czech-American author who lived in Czechoslovakia, highlighting the poor conditions under Communist rule.

Want to know why the hotels are so expensive? (Translating from the Czech): “You didn't realize what was included in the room price: free-of-charge eavesdropping on your phone, maybe even a secret camera, opening your mail without damaging the envelope and recording it in the police register, photographing your more important correspondence.” Want to look around? Over here is the prison, over there is secret police headquarters, this is where Jan Masaryk was pushed out of a window to his death...

There’s plenty more in this vein (text entirely in Czech). The author, Vlasta Vrázová (1900-1989), directed American relief work in Czechoslovakia in the years following World War II. In 1949, the Communist government held her for a week on espionage charges. She returned to the U.S. and became president of the staunchly anti-Communist Czechoslovak National Council of America, the publisher of this volume.

OCLC shows 16 institutional holdings. None in commerce. SCARCE.

PHYSICAL DETAILS: Quarto (8 ¾ x 5 ½ inches; 222 x 140 mm), 32 pages, in stapled red wrappers (soft cover).

CONDITION: Small tear to top corner of upper wrapper, staples rusted, some pencil erasures, creasing, and general handling wear. About Very Good. Item #2736

Price: $175.00