Chicago: Crossroads of an American Enterprise

New York: Julian Messner, 1944. Hardcover. Introduction by Sterling North. Illustrations by George McVicker. 8vo. Tan cloth with black lettering, pictorial price-clipped dust jacket. xxi, 317pp. Two-page map frontispiece, illustrations, decorated endpapers. Near fine/very good. Jacket a bit rubbed, with several archivally-closed (on verso) edge tears. Uncommon first edition, tight and attractive, of this volume in editor Leo Lerman's "Cities of America Biography" series. Choice autograph addition: Tipped to inner flyleaf is a superb content Typed Letter Signed from Hayes, 1p, 7 3/4" X 10 3/4", New York, NY, 14 June 1941. Addressed to future noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar Arnold F. Gates (1914-93). Very good. Heavily age toned, being produced on wood pulp newsprint-type stock. Apparently Gates had congratulated Hayes on her 1941 release "The American Primer," to which she replies ultra-cordially in part: "It is good to hear from some one who has found something of value in my book. That, of course, is the real payment for writing it. 'New work?' -- well, I am working on a new book and along with that becoming a lecturer.... I like to speak but I don't know how it will work out as a profession. I want most of all to write and keep on writing, but ut seems unless one is a writer of popular fiction, some other income is necessary...." Signed in full at the close in red pencil, strangely. Hayes (1897-1990) was an actress turned writer who cranked out a variety of fiction and nonfiction.