Lasker's Future Community

We don't often see books for the monthly post in the long-running series on Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010). The visuals are seldom attractive and the narrative is rarely compelling.

Although I had plenty of more attractive choices on this month's short list, I have a soft spot for the second World Champion. Titled, '1940 SIGNED by Emanuel LASKER INSCRIBED to Lotte JACOBI Society Chess Book RARE', the Lasker book pictured below sold for $850.00, 'Buy It Now'.

The description was written by someone who knows the item well.

'The Community of the Future' by Emanuel Lasker M.J. Bernin, Publisher. New York. 1940. 1st Edition. Signed. Inscribed.

5 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches. Hardcover. 1-295, [1] pp. Very good. Spine faded. Some wear, minor loss to spine along back gutter at the head. Internally near fine; clean, tight, unmarked. Signed/inscribed by Lasker in ink on front free endpaper’s verso: “Lotte Jacobi with kind greetings. Emanuel Lasker. June 7th, 40.” Nice and attractive.

The last book by Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941), a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognized World Chess Champion in history. In 'The Community of the Future' Lasker is proposing solutions for serious political problems, including anti-Semitism and unemployment.

Inscribed to Lotte Jacobi (1896-1990), a leading American portrait photographer and photojournalist, known for her high-contrast black-and-white portrait photography, characterized by intimate, sometimes dramatic, sometimes idiosyncratic and often definitive humanist depictions of both ordinary people in the United States and Europe and some of the most important artists, thinkers and activists of the 20th century.

For a previous eBay 'Top Item by Price' featuring a Lasker book, see Lasker's Manual Autographed (March 2017).