Old Heart Goes on a Journey by Hans Fallada first UK edition 1936

FALLADA, Hans. Old Heart Goes on a Journey. Translated by Eric Sutton.

London, Putnam & Company Ltd., 1936.

First UK edition. 8vo. 291 pp. Publisher’s red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With the original pictorial dust jacket. Very good in good dust jacket. Book with a gentle lean, text and pages clean. The jacket worn at edges with several short tears and small losses, shallow chipping at the head of the spine, some creasing and surface rubbing with marks to the back panel, but substantially complete and presentable. 
 
The first English-language edition of 'Altes Herz geht auf die Reise', published in Germany earlier the same year. Fallada had already been officially designated an “undesirable author” by the Reich authorities in 1935, restricting his works and ensuring closer scutiny. This novel nevertheless appeared in 1936 and drew close inspection of the Reich Literary Chamber for not being implicit about Nazi ideological unity, presenting Christianity, rather than National Socialism, as the moral and spiritual bond of the community.
 
The book thus belongs to the narrow and increasingly precarious period in which Fallada’s writing was being monitored. A scarce first UK edition, very rarely encountered in the original dust jacket with none currently in commerce and eight copies in institutions.