PLANNING A UTOPIAN 'WORLD CITY'
ANDERSEN, Hendrik Christian.
Création d’un centre mondial de communication.
Paris, 1913.
Two parts in one vol., folio, pp. [vi], xv, [1 (blank)], 102; title-page printed in red and black, half-titles and part-titles; 25 lithographed plates (14 of which double-page and/or folding), including plate ‘A World Centre’ to Part I not mentioned in list of illustrations, numerous heliogravure illustrations in the text; foxed as usual, browning to first and final leaves; uncut, bound in the publisher’s green gilt cloth; head of spine lightly bumped; presentation inscription to half-title verso ‘For S.E. il Ministro di Olanda with high esteem Hendrik Christian Andersen. Rome 1919’.
[with:]
ANDERSEN, Hendrik Christian; Olivia CUSHING ANDERSEN. Création d’un centre mondial de communication. Rome, [Riccardo Garroni], 1918.
Folio, pp. [8], xii, ‘26’ (recte 126); 67, [1 (blank)], [1 (contents)], [3 (blank)], 57, [1 (blank)], with dedication plate and a further 7 lithographed plates (of which 2 double-page), pp. 317–24 present in duplicate; title-page printed in red and black with lithographed vignette; a very good, clean copy; bound in ?publisher’s half roan; a few abrasions, peeling in places; presentation inscription ‘For S.E. il Ministro di Olanda with the sincere compliments of Hendrik Christian Andersen. Rome 1919’.
First French editions of both parts of this ambitious urban planning project envisioning a utopian world capital, in which art and architecture would function as vehicles of world peace.
The Norwegian-American painter, sculptor, and urban planner Hendrik Christian Andersen was raised in Rhode Island and worked as Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s art teacher before travelling to Europe and settling in Rome, where he developed a network of expatriate patrons. The first part of his plan for a World City, Création d’un centre mondial de communication par Hendrik Christian Andersen, was co-authored by the architect Ernest Hébrard, and sets out Anderson’s vision for his utopia, featuring an Olympic stadium, temples of the arts and sciences, an underground transport system, an International Court of Justice (a proto-UN of sorts), a monumental skyscraper known as the Tower of Progress, and seats of government.
Andersen’s Création was published in a limited number of copies at his own expense, to be sent to heads of state around the world (Mussolini had promised him land to realise his vision before later changing his mind) in the hopes of finding backing for his plan, but was interrupted by the advent of the First World War. After the war, Andersen produced a continuation of his vision, aided by his brother’s widow, Olivia Cushing Andersen; it was published in Rome in simultaneous English and French editions available for general sale. Andersen’s utopia resulted in ongoing disagreements with Henry James, thought to have been his lover, who wrote of his loathing for ‘words like “World” anything – they are to me mere monstrous sound without sense’.
Provenance:
Both the 1913 and 1918 editions were inscribed in Rome in 1919 to ‘S[ua] E[ccellenza] il Ministro di Olanda’, seemingly as part of Andersen’s continued efforts to gain support from world leaders and diplomats; the recipient may have been the Dutch ambassador to Rome at the time, Jan Herman van Roijen.
