Description
Inscribed to US Ambassador to China Leonard Woodcock, the first edition of In the People’s Republic by Orville Schell.
Octavo, ix, 271pp. Brown hardcover, black cloth spine. Title in gilt on spine. Stated “First Edition” on copyright page, with publisher’s full number line. Solid text block, faint foxing and dust remnants to top edge, a near fine example. In the publisher’s dust jacket, $8.95 retail price to front flap, touch of wear along top edge, sunning to spine. Signed on the front free endpaper: “To the Woodcocks / With thanks for a nice Peking evening / Orville Schell / Pecking, Aug 1978.”
Leonard Woodcock (1911-2001) was the President of the United Auto Workers, the Chief of the US Liaison Office to the People’s Republic of China, and the first US Ambassador to China. Woodcock’s skills in negotiation from his time with the UAW made him a favorable selection to President Carter, who was looking to renew relations with China in the post-Vietnam world. During the Carter administration, Woodcock led the negotiations responsible for establishing full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1979. He would continue this role through 1981, ultimately serving both the Carter and Reagan administrations.
