Chicago, With Love: A Polite and Personal History

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. Hardcover. 8vo. Black cloth spine with gilt lettering and red paper over boards, pictorial dust jacket. xiv, 293pp, ix. Illustrations. Very good/good plus. Binding spine unevenly sunned, else tight; jacket quite edgeworn, a bit sunned and rubbed, with large paper loss at head of spine. Nice first edition of these (to cite front jacket panel) "Warmhearted memories of Chicago and Chicago Society -- its life, leaders, and sensational events, its activities and peculiarities...." Choice author letter tipped opposite title page, an extra-illustrated frontispiece: TLS, 1p, 7¼" X 10¼", Wequetonsing, Michigan, 1945 August 10. Addressed to Mr. Roberts. Near fine. Outstanding content discussing his first book, reading in part: "About 'American Beauty,' it was published in January, 1929, by Covici, Friede, who also published my second book, 'Strange Capers,' a couple of years later. The firm no longer exists; when it folded up Pat Covici, the president, went to the Viking Press taking his Number One author, John Steinbeck, with him. It seems a long time ago now, but as I remember there was only one edition of 'American Beauty,' but several printings. Something over 4,000 copies were sold in all, which was supposed to be fairly good for a first novel in those days. It was published in England in 1930, I think, by Thornton Butterworth, and until the second world war was still in print there. I did not publish anything before 'American Beauty' except newspaper and magazine articles and an occasional short story or literary review -- but in my childhood I wrote a great many other stories, including three full-length novels (all completed before the age of 19), none of which fortunately ever saw the light of day...." Superb biographical content. Meeker (1902-71) was an American journalist and novelist noted for historical topics; books include "American Beauty" (his first, 1929), "Strange Capers" (1931), "Vestal Virgin" (1934), the bestselling "The Ivory Mischief" (1942), "The Far Away Music" (1945) and "Prairie Avenue" (1949).