we are pleased to offer a very special item that is a real piece of American history, social and political history precisely, as well as a rediscovered modern American manuscript of crucial relevance.

This is the “Socialist Wedding” that shocked America; or, the Rand-Herron Scandal.

It’s an important “Americanum.” A manuscript book, bound by a great American woman binder, which deals with socialism, universal social and civil rights, as well as the feminist cause. This book symbolises the American fight against the establishment, traditional social and legal norms, and the rule of capitalism. It was the wedding gift that the inner circle of socialist, progressive and anarchist friends (“comrades”) of George D. Herron and Carrie Rand Herron crafted on the occasion of their scandalous so-called “socialist wedding,” which had to set the standard for the bright future of international socialism that they hoped was nigh.

The book basically relates in a poetic and epic manner the events that occurred, as they were performed, during the wedding, which was celebrated privately in a New York apartment in 1901. The book includes all the speeches delivered by each and every guest, who also signed it. In some way, the style of the work is reminiscent of the manner of William Morris’ Art and Crafts Movement – the main author was a follower of Morris.

Carrie Rand died prematurely during the couple’s voluntary exile in Tuscany. The couple fled the US and took refuge in Italy after their performance of a socialist wedding provoked a storm of criticism and violent personal attacks directed at them. The manuscript, therefore, has remained in Italy ever since. We acquired it on the Italian antiquarian market and, through this detailed description, we aim to bring it back in the spotlight in order to give it the attention it deserves after a long period of oblivion, away from its homeland.

Please, we believe it very important that you read the foreword carefully in order to fully comprehend the powerful meaning of this item, since it is the material evidence to an intense period of social and political struggle in America; civil rights were at stake, as well as the attempt to establish a new (socialist) order based on a different notion of love, i.e. free love, which implied the shift to challenging and entirely new cultural, familial and societal structures in the Western world.