OLD BUDDHA (SIGNED)
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1928. FIRST EDITION (NAP). Hardcover. Large Octavo. Orange, cloth-covered boards with black lettering and ornamentation, and a red "signature" graphic to front board. Black lettering to spine. Brilliant red designs to endpapers, against a goldenrod field. Previous owner's ex-libris bookplate to front pastedown. Signed and inscribed to prevous owner on verso of half-title: To _________, Compliments of the auithor , Princess Der Ling, Los Angeles, California, December 1928. 22 black and white photographs. NOTE: Only two fragments of pp. 259-260 leaf present and pp. 261-262 detached but present. The fragments contain extremely graphic description of the slaughter of the Chinese Christians by the Boxers, as directed (to "Kill! Kill! Kill!") by Prince Luan and his accomplices. Minor smudging to rear board. Very Good Plus. Item #86852
Princess" Der Ling, also known as Elisabeth Antoinette White after her marriage to Thaddeus C. White, was a Hanjun bannerwoman, the daughter of Yü Keng and Louisa Pierson, the half-Chinese daughter of a Boston merchant working in Shanghai. Although not a member of the Qing royal family, Der Ling was given the title of "commandery princesswhile serving as the first lady-in-waiting for Empress Dowager Cixi.
The author writes: "...For almost three years, I was a favorite of her Majesty, and I say this without egotism, in an attempt to show my own right to tell the story I have told here. Old Buddha made me her confidante on many occasions and this book is based upon what she herself told me. I have merely tried to put it together, a fairly connected whole."
Der Ling led a rather fascinating if privileged life. She and her sister received a western education, and at one point, she received a private blessing from then Pope Leo XIII and also studied dance in Paris with Isadora Duncan.
Price: $125.00