Letter of Credit [*SIGNED*]

New York: Simon and Schuster. Near Fine in Very Good- dj. 1940. First Edition. Hardcover. (price-clipped) [a good solid copy, with minor shelfwear and light soiling to bottom edges; the Adler & Lubalin-designed jacket is bright and attractive despite numerous tiny edge-nicks (although with only minimal paper loss)]. INSCRIBED and SIGNED in the upper left corner of the front endpaper: "9/12/40 / For Rose Wainess / Jerome Weidman." A chronicle of the author's trip around the world, undertaken from April to October of 1939 because he "wished to see the world before its face was completely changed. He set out just in time to see the last months of the great European democracies. He had no preconceived plan to write a travel book, but as he moved from country to country he felt it important to make notes of the undercurrents of impending excitement. [His book] is not a political survey, nor is it a Baedeker-like report of Things Seen and Places Visited. It is the travel book of a distinguished young American novelist who has a sense of humor and is aware of the little and great things that go on about him." He spent quite a bit of time in England (Plymouth and London, with a side trip to Edinburgh) and France (Paris, Marseilles, Juan-les-Pins) -- between one-third and one-half of the book -- before continuing across the Meditteranean to Egypt and points east (Arabia, India, Ceylon, Java, Australia, etc.), winding up at last in Honolulu. There is no indication that he even thought about going anywhere near Nazi Germany (or even Italy, for that matter) -- for a Jewish novelist, probably not a bad decision. Signed by Author .