This is a Limited Editions Club set of books translated by Pearl Book and illustrated and signed by Miguel Covarrubias. The title is All Men Are Brothers - Shui Hu Chuan in Chinese - a classic fourteenth century Chinese tale of a group of bandits who struggled to help the emperor rid himself of a despotic prime minister.  

Size: 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 in. 

It was issued in two volumes, both bound by hand in a traditional oriental fashion with covers made of bark paper, red string on the spines, red, white, and black paper labels on the front covers of both volumes, then blank endpapers, the half-title, a beautiful watercolor frontis by Covarrubias in both volumes, then the title page and the copyright page page, which says this special edition is copyright 1948 by the George Macy Corporation, followed by three pages of Contents in Volume One, a List of the Illustrations for both volumes on page xi of the first volume, a six-page Introduction by Lin Yutang and An Author’s Preface (xix - xx) and The Translator’s Preface by Pearl Buck (xxi - xxiii) in Volume One, a great list of the Principal Characters from xxv - xxix, 350 pages of text in the first volume and 318 pages of text in Volume Two (Vol Two runs from 351 to 688), and the colophon page after the last page of text in the second volume is signed in red by Miguel Covarrubias and is number 59 of 1500 copies issued, which is really early in the print run and usually guarantees better quality. They come in the original wrap-around binding and orange slipcase, with a paper label on the spine of the slipcase. 

Pearl Buck (1892 - 1973) was an American writer and novelist best known for The Good Earth, a novel filled with her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China, which won her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. She was born in West Virginia to missionary parents and spent her childhood in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, near Nanking, China, so she became fluent and literate in both English and Chinese. 

Miguel Covarrubias (1904 - 1957) was a Mexican artist, caricaturist, illustrator, and art historian. He taught ethnology in Mexico City, then moved to New York City, where he became  one of Vanity Fair magazine's top caricaturists, and he fell in love with the Harlem jazz scene.  His friends included Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and W. C. Handy and he illustrated books for them. His caricatures of the jazz clubs were the first of their kind printed in Vanity Fair, and he captured the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance in his book, Negro Drawings. He also designed sets and costumes for the theater, including La Revue Negre, starring Josephine Baker, and he spent time in China, where his work was very influential among artists in Shanghai.  

The books measure 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches wide and are in terrific condition. The bindings are tight, the pages and text are clean, and the illustrations are vivid. The wrap-around binding - the internal binding - is bright and in very good condition, and the outer slipcase has wear.  

If you are a Miguel Covarrubias fan or a Pearl Buck fan, these books are available at a low starting price.  

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