Atlantic Charter: August 12th 1941.

[CHURCHILL, Winston S. and Franklin Delano Roosevelt].

$3,800.00

Item Number: 131557

Holland: The Busy Bee, c. 1944.

Rare limited Busy Bee edition of the transatlantic statement that set forth the British and American governments’ mutual economic and societal goals following the end of WWII. 12mo, original wrappers as issued. One of 100 numbered copies printed in secret in the office of the Busy Bee, this is number 73. One of the most important literary publishing houses in the Netherlands, The Busy Bee, or De Bezige Bij, was founded illegally in 1943 during the German occupation of the Netherlands by publisher Geert Lubberhuizen. Initially composed of a group of students, its first publication was a poem by Jan Campert called De Achttien Dooden [The Eighteen Dead], which describes the execution of 15 resistance fighters and three communists. The poem was sold to raise money for Jewish children who were placed with Dutch families; when it was published, in the spring of 1943, Campert had already died in the Neuengamme concentration camp. In near fine condition. A rare and desirable printing of this important document.

Issued on August 14, 1941, the Atlantic Charter outlined the aims of the United States and the United Kingdom for the postwar world as follows: no territorial aggrandizement, no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people (self-determination), restoration of self-government to those deprived of it, reduction of trade restrictions, global co-operation to secure better economic and social conditions for all, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, abandonment of the use of force, and disarmament of aggressor nations.