Meet Me in St. Louis

Cleveland/New York: The World Publishing Company. Very Good+. 1944 (c.1942). Forum Books Edition Second Printing. Mass Market Paperback. (no dust jacket) [good sound copy, albeit with some age-toning to the pages due to cheap wartime manufacture; minor bumping to lower tips, small white stain at lower left corner of rear cover]. The second printing (March 1944; the first was January) of the Forum Books edition Benson's semi-autobiographical quasi-novel about a St. Louis family during the year preceding the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, aka the St. Louis World's Fair. (Each chapter represents a month in their lives, from June 1903 through May 1904.) The basis for the beloved nostalgia-infused 1944 MGM film musical of the same title, which was named to the U.S. National Film Registry in 1994. (Usually, the Forum Books editions were movie tie-ins, although in this case the movie wasn't released until November 1944, so perhaps this reprint was in anticipation of the film but without being a direct tie-in; in any event, there is no evidence on the book itself of any connection with the film.) .