THE YAZOO RIVER. Rivers of America Series.

First edition (per presence of the Rinehart colophon upon the copyright page) INSCRIBED, DATED, AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. xvi, 362 pages. Hardcover: H 20.75cm x L 13.75cm. Dust jacket toned/foxed with some surface abrasions; small chips and tears; front flap retains publisher's printed price at top right; dj now presented in a mylar Brodart protector. Blue-green cloth; fraying at spine ends and to boards' top and bottom edges; slight bumping to front board's top fore-edge corner. Toning and surface scuffs to text block edges. Strong toning/foxing to endpapers; ink ownership inscription on front pastedown; author's boldly written five-line ink inscription "For Bonner Duggan| with deep appreciation | for a fine friend. | Frank Smith | May 12, 1954" on front free endpaper; light foxing on several initial and rear leaves but interior pages overall remain clean. Binding is firm. A very good copy in a very good- dust jacket. An uncommon book issued in the perennially popular Rivers of America Series. With Introduction, b/w map, b/w illustrations, Acknowledgements and Bibliography, and concluding Index. A native of Leflore County, Mississippi, author Frank E. Smith (1918-1997) was elected to six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1951 to 1962 and was thereafter appointed by President John F. Kennedy to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors on which he served until 1972. Smith authored/co-authored a total of nine books and, with his son Fred, founded Mississippi's finest rare and used bookshop Choctaw Books in Jackson which unfortunately closed in 2015. Inscribee Bonner Richardson Duggan (1894-1981) served as city clerk of Greenwood, Mississippi and undoubtedly knew the author as Smith grew up in Greenwood and represented the Delta region in Congress. {MS-Shelf#7|CMS-00347}.…