BOMB

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[ Albie Sachs, South African activist. ] Typescript of his book 'Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter', with variations from the published version.

Author: 
Albie Sachs [ Albert Louis Sachs ] (b.1935), African National Congress activist and former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but between 1988, when the events described occurred in South Africa, and the publication of the book in 1990.
£250.00

113pp., 8vo. On 57 leaves, stapled together, with white card backing. No title-page. Worn and aged, with first leaf detached, but in fair condition overall. In 1988, in Maputo, Mozambique, where Sachs was exiled as an ANC activist, he lost an arm and his sight in one eye when a bomb was placed in his car by agents acting for the South African Regime. Sach's memoir is an important document in the history of the South African freedom struggle. Widely praised on its publication, it received the Alan Paton Award in 1991.

[The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.] Sturdy brown suitcase belonging to an anti-nuclear protester, containing numerous pamphlets, stickers, a traffic lamp from Greenham Common Air Force base, and other material.

Author: 
[The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [1981; Greenham Common RAF base; Protect and Survive]
Publication details: 
Twelve pamphlets from 1980 and 1981, one from 1977, and two from 1979. With another item from 1988.
£350.00

A powerful and evocative artefact, and a decided museum piece, mainly centring on the year 1980 and 1981, significant years in the movement's history, with a quarter of a million people marched through central London in support of CND in 1981. The collection includes a copy of the 1980 government pamphlet 'Protect and Survive', and E. P. Thompson's celebrated riposte of the same year, 'Protest and Survive'. The collection is in fair condition, with signs of age and wear which enhance rather than detract from its impact.

[British civil defence, 1950.] Autograph Notebook, with 'G. Reeves Atom' on cover, containing notes made at civil defence meetings (Home Office, Army or Fire Brigade?) in preparation for nuclear and biological warfare.

Author: 
G. Reeves [Home Secretary Planning Committee, Regional Office, Div, S/DO; Fire Services; British 1950s civil defence; nuclear war; atom bomb; biological warfare; atomic warfare]
Publication details: 
[London.] Notes made at meetings between 30 March to 25 June 1951.
£420.00

37pp., 12mo (including two irrelevant pages at the rear), of pencil notes, with some diagrams. In a spiral-bound 'No. 430 Reporter's Note Book' by Brown Knight & Truscott, Ltd, London. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. On cover: 'G. Reeves Atom'. The notes were made at meetings or lectures held at roughly fortnightly intervals. (The last page records 'No meetings' on 9 and 23 June.) Topics include: 'Types of Shelter', 'Refuge Room', 'Long range rocket', 'Antipersonnel Bomb' ('When a bomb is found a red flag in a stick is to be placed 3 paces to the North so that B[omb].

Autograph Letter Signed ('Barnes Wallis') from the inventor of the 'bouncing bomb' used in the 'Dambusters' Raid, Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, to [Arthur] Bourne, with press photographs of Wallis and of his'swing-wing' Swallow aircraft, and cutting.

Author: 
Barnes Wallis [Sir Barnes Neville Wallis] (1887-1979), English scientist and engineer, inventor of the 'bouncing bomb' used in 1943 by the RAF in the 'Dambusters' Raid, Operation Chastise
Publication details: 
Letter on Wallis's letterhead, White Mill House, Effingham, Surrey. 20 September 1975. Press cutting from the Newcastle Herald (New South Wales), 8 August 1969.
£400.00

The four items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Letter to 'Mr. Bourne': 1p., 8vo. Replying to a letter from Bourne, he states that he will be 'very pleased to serve on the proposed "advisory board", provided that no financial liabiltiy is thereby incurred by me, & that no great amount of travelling is involved.' He concludes with the news that he is 'still busy on a hypersonic transport aircraft especially designed to take "containers".' The two photographs are both in black and white.

[Printed pamphlet.] Cataclysm Has Begun! [With covering Typed Letter Signed from Williamson to George H. Brook.]

Author: 
J. J. Williamson [John Jacob Williamson], Founder-President, the Society of Metaphysicians Ltd, Hastings, Sussex [Nuclear proliferation; Cold War; Atomic Bomb]
Publication details: 
Pamphlet: 1955. The Society of Metaphysicians Ltd. Letter: 19 February 1955; on letterhead of the Society of Metaphysicians Ltd, Archers' Court, Stonestile Lane, Hastings, Sussex.]
£250.00
 Cataclysm Has Begun!

4to, vii + 21 pp. Stapled pamphlet, on two different paper stocks (white and grey), front cover detached Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper, with crease to one corner of title-leaf. Title leaf printed, the rest mimeographed. Pp. v-vii consist of an appendix at the rear of the volume. Occult pseudo-science (the Society's logo is a pentacle), presaging the hippie 'retreat from reason' in the face of Cold War realities. Begins 'For ten years the Society of Metaphysicians has worked in the interests of human unity at all levels.

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