Greener Pastures. A Fable of Past, Present and Future

Caldwell, OH: The Caxton Printers, Ltd, 1936. From the Bart Auerbach Collection. A very good copy with a few small stains on covers. 8vo. Original green cloth. First edition of this play "presented with a grand salaam in the direction of Mr. Marc Connolly, author of 'The Green Pastures'..." (Author's Note). A dedication copy from the publisher to Marc Connolly, inscribed on the front free endpaper: "To Marc Connolly with best regards from the Idaho publisher, J. H. Gipson Caldwell, Idaho March 10, 1942." The printed dedication reads: "To Marc Connolly, Roark Bradford and the Forgotten Man." Gipson said of his mission as a printer-publisher: "Books to us never can or will be primarily articles of merchandise to be produced as cheaply as possible and to be sold like slabs of bacon or packages of cereal over the counter. If there is anything that is really worthwhile in this mad jumble we call the twentieth century, it should be books.” Laid in is a TLS by Percy Waxman of 'Cosmopolitan' forwarding the book to Connolly, "...Don't blame me for the contents as I am merely acting as a messenger to you from your admirer.