Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

/ by Ludwig Wittgenstein. With an introduction by Bertrand Russell, F.R.S. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd., 1922. First edition. Octavo, cloth (flecked, with re-colouring), rebacked with original backstrip laid down, lettered in gilt on spine; pp. 189 (without publisher’s ads. at rear); parallel text in German and English; front pastedown with label of the Workers’ Education Association Club, Sydney, NSW, with wet stamps of that institution to title page and a few text pages; preliminaries foxed, else clean and sound, a good copy.

Rare first edition of a cornerstone of modern logical positivist philosophy.

Although Wittgenstein would later recant much of his treatise, in which he attempted to identify the relationship between language and reality in a hierarchical series of 525 declarative statements, the importance of the Tractatus – the only book-length work published in his own lifetime – was recognised by fellow Cambridge philosopher Bertrand Russell, who contributed the introduction to the first edition.

The present copy is significant because of its remarkable provenance. It bears the stamps of the Workers’ Educational Association in Sydney, whose extensive library was accessible to Trade Union members six evenings a week from 1913 onwards. The W.E.A. was dedicated to the social and intellectual improvement of working class people, and the fact that a copy of the Tractatus – a notoriously difficult and dense philosophical work – was acquired for its collection and made available to borrowers to read at home (and there is evidence that this copy was particularly well read!) speaks volumes for its aspirational approach. Indeed, the book’s presence on the shelves of this humble library might be viewed wryly as a quirky detail in the intellectual landscape of Sydney in the immediate post-World War One period.

The first edition of the Tractatus has been rare and valuable since the fifties; it is now considered especially desirable due to heightened interest in the philosophy of logic with the rise of AI in practical applications. The first American edition is more common than this London printing, which is the true first edition. Only a few copies with the London imprint have appeared at auction internationally in the past decade.

The sale history of this copy is as follows: the book was purchased by antiquarian book dealer Richard Neylon from a Sydney academic in 1996; it was then acquired by Hordern House (Sydney). At this stage the book was sent to a bookbinder in England who skilfully restored it, retaining the original boards and spine panel.