London: Cassell, 1938. First edition. Publisher's binding with red marbled boards and gilt to spine. Spine slightly cocked with rubbing to corners and base of boards. Black topstain and black endpapers. Scarce original jacket Fair only with significant paper loss to the spine and chips at the corners. Playfully inscribed "To George with love -- and more than that! Ayn. Jan 18, 1940." This copy last sold at Bonhams 2005 for almost $11,750.

"In the summer of 1937, Rand took a break from working on The Fountainhead to write the novelette Anthem, a short, highly stylized tale of a future dystopia so saturated in collectivism that the word 'I' has disappeared from the language...Anthem is Rand's 'hymn to man's ego.' It is the story of one man's rebellion against a totalitarian society. Equality 7-2521 is a young man who yearns to understand 'the Science of Things,' but he lives in a bleak, dystopian future where independent thought is a crime, and where science and technology have regressed to primitive levels...In pursuit of knowledge, Equality 7-2521 struggles to answer the questions that burn within him -- questions that ultimately lead him to uncover the mystery behind his society's downfall and to find the key to a future of freedom and progress" (Rand Institute).

Bonhams lot 3169 (2005). Provenance: From the private collection of Jay T. Snider Very Good + in Fair dust jacket. (Item #2756)