The Day of Reckoning (1943)
First Edition of Max Radin's Fascinating 1943 Novel Imagining the War Crimes Trial of Hitler and His Henchmen
Radin, Max. The Day of Reckoning. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943.
Octavo. Hardcover. 1st Edition.
First edition of this speculative novel set in post-war Luxembourg and imagining the war crimes trial of Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, and the rest of the Hitler's henchmen. "Here is a small book which may be read as pure fantasy or as a piece of realism of an event as likely to happen as not. In either case, it is sure to divert the reader. As a professor of law, Mr. Radin propounds a real problem which after the coming armistice will have to be considered; as an author, he has done a brilliant piece of writing which is a delight to read" (contemporary review, New York Times). A prominent law professor at UC Berkeley, Max Radin longed for the opportunity to see Hitler and his associates in the dock. This book serves as a work both of wish fulfillment and of philosophical engagement. Radin ultimately longed for the Nazis to be treated as the common criminals they were; something that would only happen after the end of the war in the Nuremberg Trials. Owner signature. Book fine, dust jacket near-fine with only light wear to extremities.