"Zmir Artizim" – Controversy against Chassidism – Newark, 1899 – Bibliophile Edition on Paper in Various Colors

Zmir Aritzim, An Anonymous Controversy against the Sect of Chassidim, by Rabbi David of Maków, with a foreword by Efraim Deinard. Newark (New Jersey): Benzion Nathansohn, 1899. Third edition. Additional title page in English.
Bibliophile edition. The book was printed in a tall narrow format, on paper in various colors.
"Zmir Aritzim" is one of the sharpest books challenging Chassidism. The author calls in his book for a war against Chassidism, derides its customs, and bluntly contests the heads of the movement, especially its founder, R. Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, and the books attributed to him by his disciples.
The book contains a forward by the historian and polemicist Efraim Deinard (1846-1930), in which he tries to trace the origin of the book and reaches the wrong conclusion that the author of this book is Rabbi Ya'akov Bachrach. On the front endpaper appears a long handwritten note by Nechemia Shmuel Leibovitz, Jewish Studies scholar, about the book and about the foreword by Deinard: "I could not reveal it during his life without aggravating him… the book Zmir Aritizm was printed in Warsaw in 1798 – when Bachrach was not yet born… and all that Deinard wrote is completely wrong".
XXVIII, 76, [1] pp, 15 cm. Good condition. Some stains and tears. Last leaf (English title page) is detached. Two bookplates on inside front binding. Some blemishes to binding.