A time of heroism

"It's the most expensive inscribed book that I purchased for my collection," Liu says. "The book is of great historic importance regarding Kung Ho, not only because it recorded its campaign through words and photos, but also due to Snow's inscription."

Snow wrote on the book: "For Ida Pruitt, Peking-Hong Kong-New York, a good person working for good ends. With friendship, esteem and admiration. What Ho? Kung Ho! Shih Lo! Ed Shi Le (originally in traditional Chinese characters)."

Like other pioneers, such as the Snows and Rewi Alley, as Liu explains, Ida Pruitt was also one of the organization's first participants who traveled from Japanese-occupied Peking to Hong Kong and then New York in 1937-39, and worked hard to raise money and call for more people to support the Chinese people's resistance against the Japanese invaders.

What attracts Liu in particular is the three different names Snow used to refer to himself: Ed; Shih Lo in Wade-Giles Romanization; and the traditional Chinese characters of Shi Le, which used to be the Chinese name Snow called himself, in letters and signatures, and on name cards and seals. But the latter name was ignored by later translators, all of whom translated his surname as Si Nuo, which is widely recognized in China.

The third book is a copy of Red China Today: The Other Side of the River that Edgar Snow inscribed for Anna Louise Strong to celebrate her 77th birthday in 1963.