NY, Scribner's, 1930. The first American edition, with Scribner's "A" on the copyright page. With the 1930 ownership signature of Joseph Barnes. We can offer no direct provenance but a Joseph Barnes (author of Willkie: The Events He Was Part Of, The Ideas He Fought For) was a translator of Russian authors for a number of years and a recipient of the PEN translation award. According to his obituary in the New York Times, in 1928 he made an extensive tour of the Soviet Union, on which he reported for The New York World. On the staff of the Institute of Pacific Relations from 1931 to 1934, he visited Russia, Manchuria, Japan and China; he edited “Empire in the East” by 12 members of the American Council of the Institute, published in 1934. Barnes joined The Herald Tribune in 1935. He went abroad as Moscow correspondent in 1937, wrote a series on Siberia in 1938, and then went to Berlin as correspondent. He returned to the U.S. at the end of 1939 and in 1940-41 was foreign news editor. From 1941 to 1944 he served as deputy director of the overseas branch of the office of War Information. In 1951 he cited his clearance for that position to counter accusations from McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee. He eventually joined Simon & Schuster as an executive editor. Again, we can not prove that this Barnes is that Barnes. A New Republic review of the book from 1930 is laid in, much acidified and split into pieces at the folds. The book itself shows mild foxing to the prelims, fading to the board edges and spine, and handling to the covers, including a partial cup ring. The binding is sound. A very good copy, lacking the dust jacket. [#035896] $500