WPA - Federal Writers Project; American Guide Series

Port Arthur [Texas]

Houston: The Anson Jones Press, 1940. First Edition, First Printing. Sponsored by the Hamilton Smith Post No. 797. Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Pictorial 'seaplane' illustrated fabric binding; The bindings are tight and square. Text clean, light even age-toning.  Shelf handling wear, boards age-toned; corners and spine tips fraded. Address label on the verso of the front endpage; ink gift inscription and name on the second preliminary page.  8vo; 8.25 inches tall; xvii, 164 pages; With four maps on the front and rear endpages.

Much material on the petroleum industry including use of a locally-manufactured product in the bindings. Interesting chapter on defeating depression.

Many copies were destroyed in a storm according to the publisher.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s thousands of writers were hired by the Works Project Administration to create hundreds of guidebooks on all of the states in the U.S. These volumes that were produced became known as the American Guide Series. This series has been described as the biggest, fastest and most original research job in the history of the world.

Ref: Hunter 44 ; Scharf & Schoyer, #595

Item #19102

Price: $90.00