Metropolis (メトロポリス ; 殿方は金髮がお好き)
Tokyo: Kaizo-sha, 1928. First Illustrated Japanese language edition. Hardcover. Large Sextodecimo. 560 (1)pp. Original color illustrated dustjacket over red cloth with gilt lettering and tooling on spine. Title page with decorative orange ruling and publisher's device. Two plates following title page, one of them a film still in color, the other the beginning of the musical score for the film by Gottfried Huppertz with three b/w head shots. Illustrated with ten striking full-page b/w reproductions of film stills of the legendary Fritz Lang film considered the first science fiction film that premiered in 1927. The cover of the dustjacket is illustrated with the film still used on the cover of the first paperback edition.
Thea von Harbou had given the manuscript of her novel to Fritz Lang in 1924. The two of them collaborated on the film script and from 1925 to 1927 Fritz Lang directed what was to become the most expensive German film productions of the time and a milestone of Expressionistic silent science-fiction movies at the same time. After the premiere the film was re-cut and shortened and only in 2010, after the rediscovery of archival material, Metropolis was reconstructed to its original version. Harbou's novel was published in installments starting in August of 1926 and as a paperback in the same year. The Japanese translation by Toyokichi Hata was published as volume 15 of the series "World Literature" in 1928. Bound in with Metropolis is the first Japanese translation of another German author, Anita Loos, with her 1925 novel "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Text in Japanese. DJ with light wear, very small chips along edges and head an tail of sunned spine, and rubbed. Binding with very light wear along edges and spine. Endpapers browned and some sporadic foxing of block and on edges. DJ, binding and interior in overall very good condition. vg. Item #46604
Price: $4,500.00