Das Leben des Menschen.: Eine volkstümliche Anatomie, Biologie, Physiologie und Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen.

Stuttgart: Kosmos, Gesellschaft der Naturfreunde,, 1922-31. With a vivid, unfaded example of the "Man as Machine" poster First edition of Fritz Kahn's modernist magnum opus, uncommon with all five volumes in first edition, accompanied by a fresh example of the iconic poster "Der Mensch als Industriepalast" in its earliest state, a pioneering example of early information design. Also present are the 12-page explanatory brochure written to accompany the posters and the 3D glasses. Kahn, a German gynaecologist, was "arguably one of the most successful popular science writers internationally between 1920 and 1960" (Borck, p. 495). His heavily illustrated books combined science with the zeitgeist of Weimar Germany: new technologies, rapid industrialisation, and the Bauhaus and Dada movements. Das Leben des Menschen was Kahn's greatest achievement, a copiously illustrated five-volume set on human anatomy and physiology which took nearly a decade to complete. "Prolonged by the inflation crisis of 1923 and the economic depression at the end of the 1920s, but also by the difficulties of containing the increasingly extensive material in the initially planned volumes, the book finally amounted to more than 1,600 pages, with the last of its fifty binders issued and distributed in 1931, a decade after the start of the project. More than a thousand illustrations were included in the five volumes, and almost 150 colour plates" (ibid., pp. 501-2). Das Leben "fascinated laymen as well as scientists with its visual analogies and metaphors and their unusually expressive and contemporary design. To pique his reader's curiosity for the sciences and anthropology, Kahn tried to be up-to-date in both content and form. The predominant and more conventional illustrations were created in the publisher's design department, following Kahn's instructions. For more complex images, Kahn commissioned freelance painters, architects, and graphic designers who implemented his ideas in their own styles. A famous example was the almost life-sized poster 'Der Mensch als Industriepalast' (Man as Industrial Palace) of 1926. This conceptual way of illustration became Kahn's trademark and is now considered as a pioneer work of information design" (Debschitz, Fritz Kahn website). Patrick Rössler, author of the bibliographical survey of Das Leben des Menschen, argues that a "complete copy" of the five-volume edition contains at least five objects loosely inserted: the two posters ("Der Mensch als Industriepalast" and "Der Stammbaum des Menschen", the latter not present here), a 12-page booklet to accompany the posters (here bound at the end of vol. 4), 3D glasses (here the red-blue variant), and the single-page newsletter to subscribers of the fifth volume ("An alle Bezieher...", not present here). However, given the broken-backed publication and attractiveness of the individual pieces, these are rarely all present. The publication history also explains the variations in edge colouring and endpapers, such as the change from patterned colour endpapers to the plain grey of volume 5. Here the poster "Der Mensch als Industriepalast" (which first appeared in 1926) matches Rössler's "Luftröhrenfassung" variant (DMAI A.1, the earliest that he lists), as opposed to the later "Schokoladenfassung" variant. See page 30 of Rössler's study for a detailed explanation of the different ways in which purchasers of the set received it across the six-year publication period. Five volumes, large octavo. Original navy half cloth, spines lettered in gilt, light blue paper-covered sides with titles blocked in navy square, vols 1-4 with patterned colour endpapers (varying designs), vol. 5 with plain grey endpapers, edges of vols 4-5 marbled. With copious folding, single plate, and in-text illustrations throughout, in colour and black and white; the "Der Mensch als Industriepalast" poster window-mounted separately; 3D glasses loosely inserted into rear pocket of vol. 5. With half-title to vol. 1, all plates present as called for in lists, 12-page explanatory article for posters bound at rear of vol. 4, 11-page subject index for all vols at rear of vol. 5. Cloth rubbed and lightly bumped, sides sunned, gilt of vol. 2 spine dull; contents near-fine and free of marks, evenly browned as usual, rear inner hinges of vols 4-5 cracked but firm; poster colours markedly bright, some creasing; glasses without their single arm, torn away. A very good set indeed. Cornelius Borck, "Communicating the Modern Body", Canadian Journal of Communications, Vol. 32, No. 3, 2007; Patrick Rössler, "'Das Buch über Dich'. Zur Editionsgeschichte von Fritz Kahns' Das Leben des Menschen'", Rubrik, 16:1, 2018.