The Highest Dream

New York: David McKay, 1956. First Edition. Octavo (21cm). Cloth boards; dustjacket; 240pp. Slight darkening to endpapers, else a straight, tight copy in the original illustrated dustjacket, unclipped but slightly darkened on spine; Very Good. An occupational romance for young female readers, a genre in which the author specialized. This is among her less common titles, portraying the career of a young tour guide at the still-nascent United Nations. The setting provides a predictably glamorous backdrop for love and marriage - always the chief ambition of Ms. Whitney's female characters - but also offers a compelling glimpse at Americans' global ambitions and newfound fascination for all things "international" in the cold-war era.

Most of Whitney's young-adult books from this period seem to have found their way quickly into public libraries; copies in jacket, free of library markings are uncommon; those in a decent state of preservation even moreso. (Inventory #: 13569)