A title in Penguin's Political Leaders of the Twentieth Century series. Originally published in 1966, I read the revised edition, published 1967. Here is the description from the back cover: "By any reckoning Mao Tse-tung must be regarded as one of the greatest and most remarkable statesmen of modern times. As a poet of distinction, as a political philosopher of major importance, and as a strategist whose 6000-mile trek across China has become a legend, Mao has devoted his life to China and the Chinese peasants. Indeed the Chinese People's Republic has shaped a whole pattern of revolution for poor peasant societies. In this new biography, Stuart Schram sifts fact from fiction in the long story of Mao's struggle to free the greatness of China and to give a new meaning to Marxism." As I said, written in 1966, if you couldn't tell from this book description. Given its date, it does not cover the Cultural Revolution or the amazing turn of events when Nixon visited China. But when it appeared, it was a useful overview of Mao's life until then.