Salt of the Earth - The Story of Captain j. B. Ford and Michigan Alkali Company

Atlantic Monthly Company, 1940-01-01. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good+/No DJ - as issued. Hardcover with original publishers box and related ephemera, First Edition, 50th Anniversary Edition, (one of 5000 copies) 1940 Atlantic Monthly Co. 122 pages. Very Good+, no DJ - as issued. Just a touch of shelf/edge wear to dark blue cloth spine with gilt titles over blue paper boards with gilt titles - corners sharp. Comes in the original box from the publisher. Bottom part of box is intact, top part of box has one flap missing. All edges are worn and dust-soiled. Its clear that the box suffered many indignities over time but it did its job of protecting the book. No previous owner markings - all pages are clean and unmarked. Endpapers are the descendant lines of Captain John B. and Mary Bower Ford. Included with the book is a letter from the President of Wyandotte Chemical Company on the company letterhead in 1944, E. M. Ford. The letter goes on to explain employees with 25 years of service were gifted a copy starting in 1940. The letter goes on to explain due to popular appeal by other employees the book was being awarded now (in 1944) to all employees with two years service. Captain John Baptiste Ford (November 17, 1811 – May 1, 1903) was an American industrialist and founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, now known as PPG Industries, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. In 1893, Ford founded a chemical company that supplied vital soda ash for the glass production. The company was located in Wyandotte, Michigan and named Michigan Alkali Company. Later, the company was renamed Wyandotte Chemical Company and became one of the nation's leading chemical firms at the time of John B. Ford's death, eventually becoming part of BASF and expanding into the BASF industrial complex. Well done history of a great American businessman. (his wikipedia entry under John Baptiste Ford is very interesting). Very handsome vintage copy with the original box. LOC SSM-02