1928 Ellis Island Louis Lozowick

Emanuel Vajtauer – Ostrov slzí [Island of Tears (Ellis Island)] Prague: Jaroslav Hoffman, Edice MOPR, 1928. 19.5 × 14.5 cm, 189 uncut pages. First edition. A unique document of Vajtauer’s four months on Ellis Island, originally published in installments in the New York proletarian magazine Obrana, issued by the Young Czech Party. Framed as documentary literature, the book carries the author’s pointed indictment in the colophon, denouncing “the world’s most deluxe democracy” for fearing revolutionary ideas capable of overturning “the reign of the dollar,” and invoking the judicial murders of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti as an indelible stain on the United States. Issued by International Red Aid (MOPR) in fulfillment, as stated, of its political and moral obligations. Superb anonymous Constructivist-style wrapper design utilizing illustration by Ukraine-born American printmaker Louis Lozowick, whom Vajtauer may have encountered in New York. Edges professionally restored to VG condition.
Inv. I1