This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/16/2023
[FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT]. A pair of titles from the American Guide Series, comprising: South Dakota. Pierre: State Publishing Company, 1938.
8vo. Illustrated. Original cloth; original unclipped photographic dust jacket (heavily chipped and torn with losses). Provenance: Joyce Shafer (ownership name on title–page). FIRST EDITION.
Alabama: A Guide to the Deep South. New York: Richard Smith, 1941. 8vo. Illustrated. Original green cloth gilt; original unclipped dust jacket. FIRST EDITION.
The FWP American Guide series was a publication from 1937–43 comprising of 53 works “compiled during the Depression by the best writers in America, who were, if that is possible, more depressed than any other group while maintain their inalienable instinct for eating” (Steinbeck, Travels with Charley) that has been described by critic Lewis Mumford as “the finest contribution made to American patriotism”.