Peace on Earth: An Anti-war Play in 3 Acts

New York: Samuel French, 1934. First Edition.

Small Octavo (7 1/2 x 5 inches; 191 x 127 mm), vi, [2], 120 pages, in gray cloth, titles in black to spine, in the rare, unclipped, illustrated dust jacket.

Longshoremen go on strike, refusing to load munitions on ships bound for Europe. Why? If there's going to be a war, they're the ones who will have to fight it. The strike engulfs the local college community, and a psychology professor is sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit.

The influential theatre critic Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times referred to "Peace on Earth" as a "propaganda play," a description that the authors, George Sklar and Albert Maltz, would probably not disagree with. "During the course of a lively and disorderly evening, 'Peace on Earth' manages to denounce scab labor, capital, endowed universities, the detachment of college teachers, the jingoism of the alumni of the class of 1917 and the indifference of the police to free speech," Atkinson wrote. (The New York Times, November 30, 1933, page 39.)

The play was first produced by the Theatre Union, Inc. on November 29, 1933, at the Civic Repertory Theatre in New York. Robert Keith played the hapless professor in a performance that Atkinson praised in an otherwise hostile review. "...Robert Keith plays with a grave serenity and a decent sincerity that command respect and sympathy," Atkinson wrote.

Copies of "Peace on Earth" are scarce in the antiquarian book market, and those with dust jackets are even more elusive, especially with jackets as nice as this one. (Unfortunately, the artist of this beautiful jacket is uncredited.) This copy was previously owned by John K. Martin, founder of Black Sparrow Press, with his discreet book label to the rear pastedown.

CONDITION: Near Fine, with marginalia on one page, a bit of foxing to the fore edge, and a small book label of John K. Martin to the rear pastedown. The unclipped dust jacket is also Near Fine with only light edge wear. A beautiful copy.