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FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECTS OF THE WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION (VARDIS FISHER, STATE DIRECTOR) Idaho: A Guide in Word and Picture (American Guide Series)Caldwell ID: The Caxton Printers, Ltd, 1937. 1st Edition (see description). Hardcover 2nd Printing (June 1937). (price-clipped) [nice copy, minor shelfwear and light bumping at bottom corners, small abrasion mark at right edge of front cover, small smudge at bottom corner of text block (from contact with dusty shelf, no doubt) but otherwise clean and unmarked; jacket is moderately edgeworn, with some insignificant wear and a few tiny tears along the top edge, slight paper loss near top of spine, internal tape-repair at top of spine]. (American Guide Series) Series (B&W photographs, maps) An attractive and desirable copy of what is, by most accounts, the rarest of all the American Guide series -- especially so in the dust jacket, and ever-so-much-more-so in this particular printing (the second, dated June 1937, and specified as the "Library Edition," as was the first printing), which was the first to carry a credit for Vardis Fisher, the State Director of the WPA in Idaho, who wrote most of the book but whose name was omitted from the first edition. According to another bookseller, the printing plates and most of the second printing copies were destroyed in a fire in March 1937. I have not been able to independently confirm this, but if true then it would seem that the stated printing date on this volume is inaccurate. On the other hand, the relative scarcity of copies of the second printing is consistent with the "most copies destroyed" scenario. Bibliographic hair-splitting aside, the important thing is that Fisher's name IS printed in this copy, both on the title page ("VARDIS FISHER, State Director") and as signatory to the Foreword -- making it thus the preferred issue for the Fisher collector. Joseph M. Flora has written that Fisher, already a well-known (if not especially prosperous) novelist by the mid-1930s, "was eager to accept the directorship of the WPA's Writers Project [in Idaho]. Working fiendishly, doing most of the writing himself, he was determined that Idaho would have the first of the state guides." In this he succeeded, and under his continuing directorship two more significant books were produced: "The Idaho Encyclopedia" (1938) and "Idaho Lore" (1939). The book itself is in a somewhat larger format (about an inch taller) than most of the later American Guide volumes, but in terms of content, it pretty much set the model, being divided almost equally between sections devoted to history, culture, resources, etc, and a selection of detailed auto tours of the state. There are 130 black & white photos, several text maps, and three fold-out maps (all in excellent condition); there is also a color map inserted in a pocket on the rear pastedown, in pristine condition. The jacket text carries what is perhaps the most eloquent statement of the underlying vision of the entire American Guide project: "[This book] is no ordinary guidebook. It is an attempt to give the dignity and beauty of living literature to a factual characterization of a state." The binding of the book itself is quite lovely: dark green fabric with the title in gilt script and an illustration of a mountain landscape in green and gilt on the front cover, and the spine bearing the title and the state seal in gilt; the jacket is a black-and-white photo-montage.. Near Fine in Very Good dj .
Offered for US$ 650.00 by: ReadInk - Book number: 12410
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