What People Said

New York: The Viking Press. Very Good+. 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. (oatmeal cloth; no dust jacket) [nice copy, minor shelfwear to bottom edge, just a touch of soiling to spine; clipped text from jacket glued to front pastedown and rear endpaper, one-time owner's name on verso of front endpaper]. This novel, set in a small city in the fictional midwestern state of "Oklarada," is "a colloquial, rapid story of a man skyrocketed by ambitions beyond his control. But it is more than that: it is a back-stage view into the politics, industry, society, philosophy of the people who voice the public opinion of a nation." (I'm so very tempted right now to quote Gene Wilder's great line in BLAZING SADDLES.) The author was a Kansas man (born in Emporia), and although he includes the usual "this book is fiction" disclaimer, as well as a statement that he "has not attempted or intended a portrait of any actual person, living or dead," it was obvious at the time that the book's climactic scandal "that enmeshes the leading citizens, innocent and guilty" was obviously inspired by the Kansas Bond Scandal of 1933. (The author's bio notes that some of his earliest experience came from working "on his father's newspaper" after graduating from Harvard in 1924, but doesn't explicitly identify his father as William Allen White, the famous progressive editor of the Emporia Journal.) The New York Times reviewer commented that "as social analysis [the book] has rarely been surpassed in American literature," and stated that the author "should not apologize for having used much first-hand material for this vigorous, solid and illuminating novel." ****NOTE that additional postage charges will apply for international shipping of this moderately heavy book; if this concerns you, please contact us for a shipping quote before placing your order. **** .