Ben-Avi, Itamar. Avi.

Auction 98 | Thursday, June 16th, 2022 at 1:00pm

Fine Judaica: Rare Printed Books, Manuscripts, & Autograph Letters

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Lot 116

(BEN-YEHUDAH, ELIEZER).

Ben-Avi, Itamar. Avi.

<<FIRST EDITION.>> Illustrated plates, folding-plate and glossary. Foreword with a rudimentary outline of the author’s innovative use of Hebrew. pp. 16, 4, 106, (2). Original boards, corners bumped. 8vo.

“Yeruçalaym” (i.e. Jerusalem): 1927 (“X Le-Hatzharat Balfur”)

Est: $800 - $1,200

A biography of Eliezer Ben-Yehudah by his son, Itamar, putatively the first Modern Jew whose mother-tongue was exclusively Hebrew. The present work displays the author’s bold linguistic innovation, writing in Hebrew - entirely in Latin characters, testifying to Ben-Avi’s political and cultural wish to transform the Jewish people into an independent “Western” nation. See EJ, IV cols.469-70.