RECUEIL DES PUBLICATIONS SCIENTIFIQUES.

Geneva: : Societe Anonyme des editions Sonor, 1922.. First edition -. Fair condition only in the original wrappers (rear cover missing, front cover detached but present, beginning to separate at signatures, stamp of previous owner and underlining on a few pages.) . First edition. Recueil indispensable d'articles de base dus ˆ Ferdinand de Saussure, auteur du fameux Cours de linguistique generale, et dont le role dans l'evolution de la linguistique moderne a ete dŽterminant. En Francais (Text in French) The essential writings by the Swiss scholar who is considered the father of modern linguistics and of semiotics, with a preface by Charles Bailly et LŽopold Gautier, two of his students who were instrumental in publishing posthumously his "Cours de linguistique generale." This work includes papers dating back to 1879 (Memoire sur le systeme primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-europeennes) and continuing throughout his career. Quite scarce in the first edition. This copy is quite fragile and worn, but far more interesting than the flaws is the evidence that it presumably belonged to the baseball player, intelligence officer and scholar, Moe Berg: it is stamped in several places with "Morris (Moe) Berg." Berg (1902-1972) played in the major leagues for 15 years and he joined the fledging OSS during World War II where he was pivotal in gaining information on whether or not the Germans where developing a nuclear bomb. Throughout his life, he was known for his ability to speak many languages (he graduated from Princeton with a degree in modern literature and the ability to read seven languages, and he later added more, including Japanese). A seminal book on linguistics from the library of one of the most unique of American scholars. Index. 638 pp.