The autobiography, presented by Zhang Guozhu, a councilor of the Shaanxi Provincial Collectors' Association, was written in 1937. It was edited by Edgar Snow, an American journalist who was friends with China.

It includes a full-length photograph of Mao Zedong in a farmer's courtyard and a picture of Mao with his former wife He Zizhen.

The book contains 70 pages with more than 30,000 Chinese characters. It depicted much unrecorded historical material in Mao's childhood.

"The upcoming July 1 is the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The book is to be made public on the occasion to show my respect to the older generation of the Chinese proletarian revolutionaries," Zhang said.

(People's Daily 04/22/2001)