In good condition with minimal exterior shelf-wear and interior age-related wear and marks of use. Slight rubbing to boards and spine. General age-related toning to pages. Pen notations, markings, and black-ink faculty stamps on title page. Please see our photographs and ask any questions prior to purchasing.

Rare 1939 Swahili to French dictionary, book 1 only. Swahili, also known by its local name Kiswahili, is a Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique. This specific book once resided in the prestigious library of language scholar and collector of obscure dictionaries, Johannes Rahder (1898-1988). Rahder was a Dutch Orientalist and professor of Japanese at the University of Leiden from 1931 through 1946, and at Yale University from 1947 through 1965. He was depicted in the work of the legendary Langston Hughes' (1901-1967)  'I Wonder, I Wander'. After a brief meeting between the two figures on the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1933, Hughes recognized Rahder as being a "...famous authority on obscure Oriental languages". Rahder's black-inked Yale University faculty stamp and pen markings can be found in this folio.