Poems Here at Home - Birthday Dinner Edition - ASSOCIATION COPY

Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1915. "Indiana is proud of its "National Poet." The first official public celebration occurred in 1915 when Governor Samuel Moffett Ralston decreed October 7th as Riley Day. The state celebration swept across the country as the National Commissioner of Education issued instructions for a nationwide observance in all public schools. A birthday dinner in honor of the Poet was held in Indianapolis and attended by four hundred people. Many admirers were turned away and telegrams from countless well-wishers were cabled, including one from President Woodrow Wilson. To mark the event, a special birthday edition of Riley's Poems Here at Home was published and distributed to attendees."(Lilly Library) This copy one of those printed for the 400 dinner attendees. It is dated October Seventh Nineteen Hundred Fifteen on the title page, and states Birthday Dinner Edition front cover. Top edge gilt, Near Fine, white cloth at spine lightly soiled. ASSOCIATION COPY, from the library of Will H. Hays, most famously known as the first President of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), which under his guidance published a blacklist of actors and workers studios should not hire, inserted moral clauses into actors' contracts, and published an informal list of suggested guidelines for film producers. Although no written indication in the book of Hays ownership, the book was purchased from his estate and laid in is a printed 1 page (folded)speech Hays gave at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on Sept. 22, 1915, published and presented by The McKinley Club, and a single page (folded) review of Hays from the New York Evening Post. This Birthday Dinner Edition is RARE in the marketplace, and made even more so by this great Hoosier Association. . Limited Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/No Jacket, As Issued. Illus. by Kemble, E.W.. Association Copy.