What is freedom? What is democracy? What is communism? What happens to communists? These were pressing questions for the English-speaking world in the 1950s and provided the titles to a series of cheap but well-produced and striking books that are still to be found at reasonable prices in second-hand bookshops and on the shelves of libraries around the world. Under the banner of ‘Background Books’ and ‘Bellman Books’ they were issued by reputable private publishing houses including Ampersand, Batchworth, Phoenix and the Bodley Head. Their surprising story has been outlined in several recent studies, revealing their origins in the propaganda machine of the post-war British government and in a variety of overt and covert relationships between government and publishers, but they have otherwise not attracted much attention from historians, bibliographers or collectors.
Read the full article in The Book Collector Summer 2022, Vol. 71.2.
Musa Igrek 