Immigrants to Freedom: Jewish Communities in Rural New Jersey since 1882

First edition. Octavo. Some highlighing throughout (see below) else about fine in lightly tanned and modestly worn, very good dust jacket with a few tiny specks of white paint on the cover panel. With a curious but very nice inscription on the front fly: "To Vivian Seldes admirable daughter of pioneers in life in the arts Joseph Brandes." (As this book came from the library of Tony Award-winning actress Marian Seldes, we believe the inscription was a slip of the pen by Brandes; Marian Seldes' father's middle name is Vivian. We presume it was Marian who highlighted brief passages throughout, as she was prone to marking her books.) A very nice association: Marian Seldes's grandfather Sergius Seldes corresponded with Tolstoy and Kropotkin and came to America to escape persecution in Odessa after the assassination of Alexander II. He helped found Alliance, New Jersey, what Marian Seldes described in an article as "the first Jewish farm settlement in America." Two of Gilbert Seldes' books are listed in the bibliography and members of the Seldes family (not Marian) are listed eight times in the index.…