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Complete eight-book Transcript of Record submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States in the cases of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Morton Sobell, comprising Volumes I and II, each divided into four books, with pagination running continuously through page 1715 and indexes to both volumes at the conclusion of Volume II, Book 4. The books bear matching front text: “Supreme Court of the United States, October Term, 1951, No. 111, Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg, Petitioners, vs The United States of America / No. 112, Morton Sobell, Petitioner, vs. The United States of America. Petitions for Writs of Certiorari and Exhibit Thereto / Filed June 7, 1952." Each book is bound in its original green printed wrappers. In overall fine condition, with some wear and sunning to the spines.
The extensive record reproduces the proceedings underlying the Rosenbergs’ and Sobell’s appeals following their convictions for conspiracy to commit espionage. It includes the indictment and pretrial proceedings, opening statements, courtroom arguments and rulings, and testimony and cross-examination of witnesses central to the government’s case, including David and Ruth Greenglass, Max Elitcher, and Elizabeth Bentley. The record also contains testimony concerning atomic information and security surrounding the wartime atomic-bomb project, as well as the defendants’ testimony and exchanges among the court, prosecutors, and defense counsel.
Filed while the Rosenbergs and Sobell sought Supreme Court review of their convictions, the transcript documents the evidentiary and procedural record placed before the Court in their petitions for certiorari. The Supreme Court denied certiorari on October 13, 1952; Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953, while Sobell served nearly 18 years in prison.
The trial underlying this record arose from one of the defining espionage cases of the early Cold War. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Morton Sobell were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage for their alleged roles in a wartime network that passed classified American military and atomic information to the Soviet Union. The trial opened on March 6, 1951, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York before Judge Irving R. Kaufman. Central to the government’s case was Ethel Rosenberg’s brother David Greenglass, a machinist who had worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos and testified that he supplied Julius with sketches and information concerning the atomic bomb; he also implicated Ethel by testifying that she had typed his handwritten notes. The jury found all three defendants guilty on March 29th, and on April 5th Kaufman sentenced Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death and Sobell to 30 years in prison. The prosecution and subsequent execution of the Rosenbergs became one of the most controversial episodes of the Cold War, generating years of legal appeals and public debate that continued through the petitions for Supreme Court review represented by this transcript.
Originates from The President's Box Bookshop, a Washington, D.C.-based specialty mail-order and antiquarian book dealer operated by proprietor David Lovett.
