Ben-Avi, Ithamar. Avi

AUCTION 14 | Tuesday, November 13th, 2001 at 1:00

Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts From the Library of the London Beth Din

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Lot 62

(BEN-YEHUDAH, ELIEZER)

Ben-Avi, Ithamar. 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: $400 - $600

PRICE REALIZED $2,000

A biography of Eliezer Ben-Yehudah by his son, Ithamar, 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