It Happens Every Spring -- in Rare Variant Dust Jacket

Farrar, Straus, 1949. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Near-fine with small rubbed spot on front board and very slight foxing to page edges, otherwise bright and clean inside and out. In a very good plus dust jacket (price intact) with minor rubbing to corners and light fading to spine. Variant dust jacket with completely different cover art than the jacket normally seen. Quite possibly part of a test run (as the $2.00 price is lower the $2.50 found on the standard jacket) or perhaps one of a small quantity issued in conjunction with the release of the film version (which also appeared in 1949). The well-known film stars Ray Milland, Jean Peters and Paul Douglas. Milland plays a college professor who is working on a scientific experiment when a baseball crashes through the window, spilling the fluids that his flasks and test tubes contain--the pooled fluids combine to form a chemical which then covers a large portion of the baseball. The professor soon discovers that the fluid, along with any object with which it makes contact, is repelled by wood. He realizes the possibilities and takes a leave of absence to go to St. Louis to pitch in the big leagues, where he becomes a star and propels his team to the World Series.