A Japanese Herb Caen

[Shadow of Time: An Anthology] Toki no kage: Shoyo manpitsushu

Abe, Toyoji

Notes: A collection from Abe Toyoji's (1880–1946) "Shadow of Time" newspaper column which was the most widely circulated Japanese column in the United States in the 1930s (see Shin Sekai Asahi Shinbun, January 24, 1937). He completed the manuscript for this book in early 1941 but its publication was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.

Abe edited the Portland newspaper Oshu Nippo for half a dozen years, beginning in 1909. He then moved to San Francisco to edit the Shin Sekai paper, where he remained until after Pearl Harbor, when he was arrested as a dangerous enemy alien and sent to a camp near Crystal City, Texas. He died there of a brain tumor in 1946. In 1968, his widow Abe Yuka returned to Japan for a visit and arranged for this private printing of Abe's manuscript.

The book is rather scarce, with just two holdings in OCLC: 19404771 (UC Berkeley) and 673962195 (National Diet Library).

251 pages plus a frontispiece portrait of the author.

Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). A fine copy in printed wrappers, probably lacking the publisher's box.

Publication: San Francisco: Abe Yuka, 1968.

Item No: #362517

Price: $500