Description
First edition of The Rise of Mr. Ponzi by Charles Ponzi.
Octavo, ix, [1], 176pp. Yellow cloth, title stamped in blue on spine and front cover. Stated “first edition” on title page. Previous owner’s gift inscription on front free endpaper. Light toning to endpapers, faint foxing to leaf ends. Sunning to spine, rubbing to cloth along fore edge. Portrait of Mr. Ponzi on page VI. Housed in a custom black cloth clamshell, title in gilt on spine. An exceptionally scarce example of Charles Ponzi’s autobiography, with only three other known examples appearing on the market.
The memoirs of Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) were published in 1937, with Ponzi living in exile in Italy after his many fraud convictions in the United States. The book was printed by the Pacific Printing Company in New York in 1937, who refused to release the first 1000 copies until receiving payment from Ponzi. He appealed to the American public for $235 to pay the publishing fees, since “I haven’t got a cent. …I’m sure there must be someone in the United States who would be willing to pay the bill for me.” He eventually found an angel investor and the book was released in 1938. Ponzi offered a second book, titled “The Fall of Mr. Ponzi,” but it was never published. Ponzi died destitute in Brazil in 1949.
