John Temple Graves Editor (2 results)

Condition: Fair. Acceptable condition. (business, history, insurance companies, american south) A readable, intact copy that may have noticeable tears and wear to the spine. All pages of text are present, but they may include extensive notes and highlighting or be heavily stained. Includes reading copy only books. Bundled media such as CDs, DVDs, floppy disks or access codes may not be included.

Presumed first edition (no direct statement provided). 255 pages. H 31.25cm x L 23.25cm. Flexible dark brown patterned covers with shallow chipping and wear at edges as they overlap those of text block. Slender staining at lower fore-edge margin of front free endpaper recto but interior pages are otherwise clean. Binding is firm. A good+ copy. Laid-in at front endpapers is a business card (likely contemporary to the book) for a Tuscaloosa representative of Protective Life. Compiled for the silver anniversary of the Birmingham, Alabama-based Protective Life Insurance Company founded by former Alabama governor William Dorsey Jelks and celebrating its first twenty-five years of business from 1907-1932 (and still in business today as the primary subsidiary of Protective Life Corporation. Presumably given as gifts to company employees and sales agents as front cover has space for a "Presented to" name-label but now only with a small paper sliver where such a label may have once been affixed. Text includes "The Protective Life Story" (pages 9-24) by John Temple Graves II, two page historical overviews of the southeastern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas) probably where the company was chartered for business (as obviously several states are noticeably absent). Extensive section "History and Romance in the Counties of Alabama" (pages 45-175) reviewing history of Alabama's 67 counties plus other text. With maps on endpapers and b/w illustrations by Evelyn Hinman Smith. Includes approximately twelve full-page b/w photographs which are all uncredited but are reminiscent of the documentary style seen in mid-1930s Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration images by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. However, of course, this book pre-dates either of those photographers' southern forays so the images must be the work of someone else.