MY FIRST THIRTY YEARS

[Austin]: The Book Club of Texas, 1989. Large octavo. Original wrappers, paper spine label. A fine copy, the leaves largely unopened by the previous owner. First US edition. One of 500 copies, designed and illustrated by Claire Van Vliet, and printed at the Press of W. Thomas Taylor, with a new afterword by Larry McMurtry. A new edition of Ms. Beasley's autobiography, first published in 1925 by Robert McAlmon's Contact Editions, focusing largely on her upbringing in West Texas around the turn of the century. Apart from a pirated serial publication shortly after its original appearance, this is the first American publication of the text. Accompanied by the prospectus making the initial exclusive offering of copies to members of the Book Club of Texas, the single leaf printing instructions for opening the book, and the somewhat uncommon separate pamphlet printing of Mencken's appreciative review of the original edition for THE AMERICAN MERCURY. SCHRADER E62a (the Mencken item). (Inventory #: WRCLIT82948)