(1) BAGHDAD: IMAGO MUNDI, AND OTHER FOUNDATION LORE, by Charles Wendell. Published by Cambridge University Press, [1971]. A separately bound reprint from International Journal of Middle East Studies, 1971. SIGNED & INSCRIBED by the AUTHOR on the front cover. Booklet, paper covers, 7x10 inches, 30 pages (numbered 99-128). GOOD condition, some creases and edge wear to the covers, a crease to the upper corner of the inner pages, and some minor hand corrections to the text, presumably by the author; overall a solid, bright, presentable copy.

(2) THE PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD OF SIRAT AL-NABI, by Charles Wendell. A separately bound reprint from MUSLIM WORLD / Hartford Seminary Foundation, 1972. SIGNED & INSCRIBED by the AUTHOR on the front cover. Booklet, paper covers, 6x9.5 inches, 30 pages (numbered 12-41). VERY GOOD condition, tight, bright and clean.

About CHARLES WENDELL (from a UC Santa Barbara website):

******Charles Wendell, b.1919 d. 1982, Professor of Eastern Languages; Germa nic and Slavic Languages; Religious Studies; Eastern Languages: University of California Santa Barbara.

Charles Wendell was a brilliant linguist, fluent in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish, Latin, and Greek. In 1967 Wendell joined the faculty at Santa Barbara as an Assistant Professor of Arabic. He was later advanced to Associate Professor with a joint appointment with the Eastern Languages Department, where he continued to teach Arabic, and with the Religious Studies Department, where he offered courses in Islamic religion.

A meticulous scholar, Wendell, whose articles were erudite and enlightening, contributed to several important books on Middle Eastern culture and civilization. But his interests were quite broad, ranging from the history of early Islam to intellectual developments in modern Egypt. Early in his scholarly career Wendell's translation of Muhammad Abduh by Osman Amin was published by the American Council of Learned Societies. Later books included The Evolution of the Egyptian National Image: from its Origins to Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid and Five Tracts of Hasán al-Banná (both by UC Press). At his death Professor Wendell was engaged in a long range, two volume project on the 8th century Arabic classic The Book of Kalilah and Dimnah. Planned and begun were a new translation of the work and a full volume to "deal as exhaustively as possible with the biography of the author and his historical and cultural ambience." Such thoroughness was typical of Wendell's scholarship.******

This is an UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY by EVA BARTOK titled LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER or IMRE. Undated (1970s?) The screenplay seems to be Semi-Autobiographical. It tells the story of a Mother and Her Young Daughter in Nazi Germany. Eva Bartok had a Catholic mother and a Jewish Father, and so does the mother in this screenplay. The inner angst this caused Bartok (and the mother and child in this screenplay) during the Nazi years is on full display. Photocopied on plain white paper (copy machine copies were, and still are, common among draft, production and working screenplays; drafts could be quickly made and sent to the film's writers, agents, producers, directors, etc.), 8.5x11 inches, 136 pages plus a title page, pages printed on one side only. Plastic spiral bound. GOOD condition, the title page has some words covered with White Out and white label tape, the title is written in black marker on the front page edges; there are a few relevant margin notes (photocopied as is this entire draft); the last few pages have light staining at the left margin; there are the usual photocopying dust marks and some corner creases, otherwise the script is bright and clear. An Unusual and Rare Screenplay by the Actress EVA BARTOK, perhaps revealing some of what it was like for her as a Catholic / Jewish child married to a Nazi Officer in Nazi Germany. This is the only copy that I have or have ever seen. About EVA BARTOK (from Wikipedia): ******Eva Bartok (b. 1927 d. 1998), was an actress born in Budapest, Hungary as Eva Marta Szoke Ivanovics. She began acting in films in 1950 and her last credited appearance was in 1966. She is best known for appearances in Blood and Black Lace, The Crimson Pirate, Operation Amsterdam, and Ten Thousand Bedrooms. During World War II, a teenaged Bartok, the daughter of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, was forced to marry Hungarian Nazi officer Geza Kovacs; the marriage was annulled after the war on the grounds of coercion of a minor. She had four other marriages, all of which ended in divorce, including her final marriage, to actor Curd Jurgens (1955-56). Her daughter Deana was born in 1957, shortly after the marriage to Jurgens ended. Three decades later, Bartok claimed Deana's biological father was actually Frank Sinatra, with whom she had a brief affair in 1956. Eva Bartok died on 1 August 1998 in London.******

WAR AND THE HOLOCAUST, by ILLAN PALAT.

TEXT IN RUSSIAN, except for an 8 page section in English.

Self published, San Francisco, 2004. Printed by Anzori Printing.

Softcovers, 8.5x11 inches, 211 pages. Illustrated with some b&w photographs.

VERY GOOD condition, just lightly used, tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked.

About the author ILLAN PALAT (from the BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE website):

******Illan Palat was born on April 10, 1924, in Ukraine. When he was three, his family had their property confiscated and was forced to move to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. They lived and worked in Birofeld, a local kolkhoz, until Palat's father learned accounting and relocated his family to Birobidzhan. Palat was drafted in October 1942, underwent infantry training, and was sent to the front. His first combat experience was in the Battle of Kursk, where he fought on the front line in a 45mm anti-tank artillery unit. The battles were brutal, and Palat's unit suffered heavy losses. There were intermittent shortages of food and water, but there was also a strong sense of camaraderie among all soldiers, regardless of their backgrounds. In late 1943, Palat was severely wounded in the leg; he was saved by another solider, who carried him off the battlefield and into a local house. After eight months of hospitalization and multiple surgeries, Palat returned to Birobidzhan on crutches. Of the forty-three young men who were drafted from Birobidzhan with him, only two would come back. After demobilization, Palat worked as a watchmaker in Birobidzhan, until doctors advised him to move to a warmer climate because of his wound. In 1947, Palat moved to Tbilisi, Georgia, where he worked in construction. In 1977, he moved to United States and lived in New York and San Francisco. In addition to working as a contractor, he wrote the books A SOLDIER FROM BIROBIDZHAN and THE WAR AND THE HOLOCAUST.******

RELIGION AND THE DECLINE OF MAGIC Studies In Popular Beliefs In Sixteenth And Seventeenth-Century England by Sir Keith Thomas

Published by the Folio Society, London, 2012. First Illustrated Edition, Two Volumes in Slipcase, hardbound in blue cloth with gilt printing on the front cover and spine, 10" x 6.5", 992 total pages, beautifully illustrated with 42 pages of color plates. FINE Condition: tight, bright, clean and unmarked, as new. Shrink wrap partially removed from slipcase which has a few light shipping dings to the front edge.

Sir Keith Thomas's magnum opus is the foundational text for the study of early modern witchcraft during the English Renaissance. A monumental historical monograph that examines the complicated relationship between the supernatural and christianity. In the beginning of the 1500s magic pervaded society. Religious faith, prayer and prophecies were magical. Outside the church magical power reigned in the healing arts, in astrology and alchemy, in the knowledge that ghosts, fairies, omens, spirits, and the devil exist, and in the obsession with witchcraft. Nothing happened by accident. Evil had to be willed. The air was full of demons who controlled everything, easily summoned by a malevolent witch. But by the time Sir Isaac Newton dropped that gravitational apple science was ascendant and most of the witches had been burned.