First Editions with a Future. (Inscribed and signed)

Proof Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1935, unpaginated. Octavo. First edition. Original publisher’s dark navy blue cloth, gilt-lettered spine. A fine copy; lovely. Inscribed: "To my good friend Meredith Janvier from Alexander C. Wirth. Sept 5, 1935." Meredith Janvier was a Baltimore-based bookseller and photographer for the Sun papers, and a close friend of H.L. Mencken’s. An interesting 1930s guide to American first editions, those the author deemed worthy, with issue points for a number of titles given. The book is intended for novice collectors and includes several first edition title-pages reproduced in facsimile. The author writes, in part: "The intent of this little book is to serve as a beacon to the novice collector of modern American first editions — that is, it should help him to avoid the pitfalls which sometimes beset the unwary. Nor is the more seasoned collector really immune from these hazards. Even the most thorough collector can never hope to be a walking encyclopedia, and thus the price of this compact form of bibliographical data may well be offset should it serve to avoid one bad buy.". …