Lasker, Buschke, Euwe, and Keres

This edition of Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010), pulls together a number of topics related to chess history. The item pictured below was titled 'Dr Emanuel Lasker grandmaster chess champion signed 1940 chess book'. It sold for 'Best offer accepted', which was something less than US $599.99. I don't know why eBay obfuscates the final price, but so it does.

The description of the item said,

This is a small page book "The Community of the Future" published by Dr. Albrecht Buschke but written by Emanuel Lasker. In the writing it has a few of the best chess matches. The book was put out and signed by Lasker in 1940 to help pay for Lasker's bills. There are a few water marks and pages are wavy. This was purchased in the 1970's from dealer Fred Wilson books.

That description is inaccurate to the point of being misleading. (The seller specializes in autographs.) Shown in the image is a copyright page and a preface, attached to each other with staple holes between the pages. A second image showed two more pages, also attached with staple holes: a back page (to the left) and a cover (to the right). The cover said,

The 14 Games Played in the Match between Paul Keres and Dr. Max Euwe (Holland, 1939/40) with notes from various sources -- Original annotations to two games by Dr. Emanuel Lasker (Chess Champion of the World 1894 - 1921) Price: 75 cents

Under the signature, which might be a facsimile, the copyright page said, 'Copyright 1940 by Dr. Emanuel Lasker'. The preface said,

I am very happy to be able to submit to the public this edition of the 14 games of the recently finished match between Dr. Max Euwe and Paul Keres in a more elaborate form than promised in the announcements. Dr. Lasker who promised, on my suggestion, in the last of his 15 lectures on chess delivered in New York, during the winter 1939/40, to annotate the ninth game especially for this edition, was so impressed by the fifth game of the series that he contributed his notes also to this game, thus enabling me to publish this booklet with notes by the veteran ex-champion of the world to two (instead of one) of the most thrilling games of the match between the youngest ex-champion of the world and the youngest candidate for the championship.

In some of the later games I was able to employ notes by the dean of chess masters and writers on chess: Jacques Mieses who just celebrated his 75th anniversary.

In this company of famous annotators I did not feel myself expert enough to publish any notes of my own to the games, so I checked carefully the notes I found in some of the less easily accessible European sources, giving always credit to the sources whence the notes are taken.

New York, April 16th, 1940.
Dr. Albrecht Buschke

The back page showed the final moves from the last game of the match. That was above an advertisement for:-

"The Community of the Future"; A new book by Dr. Emanuel Lasker; Price: $2.50; Order from Dr. Albrecht Buschke

A few years ago I posted more examples of Buschke's work, of which the most notable were:-

• Buschke in Chess Life (September 2016)
• 'Alekhine's Early Chess Career' (October 2016)

For more about the match, see Euwe - Keres 1939/40 Match (chessgames.com).