THE WORLD IS MINE. (Dust jacket title: "The World is Mine; Apollonius, Philosopher and Financier.")

First edition (not stated) INSCRIBED, SIGNED, AND DATED BY CO-AUTHOR CLAYTON RAND. 380 pages. Hardcover: H 20.75cm x L 14cm. Dust jacket well rubbed; nicks and short tears at edges also with shallow chipping at spine and flap fold ends; usual color fading to spine panel's title lettering; dj now presented in a mylar Brodart protector. Black cloth with bright gilt stamped spine lettering. Swath of aquamarine felt tip ink on top edge along with small dark stain; light brown staining near fore-edge heel; several brown stains at to pages 3-10 but otherwise interior text pages are clean. Binding is firm. Author's seven-line ink inscription upon the front free endpaper: "To | Mrs. Harry Simrall | with the compliments | of Clarence E. [illegible] | and the best wishes | of Clayton Rand | 8/25/'58." Else a very good copy in a very good- dust jacket. Laid-in at rear endpapers are (#1) reprint of a Fort Worth Star-Telegram book review and (#2) a promotional sheet/order form from Rand's Gulfport, Mississippi-based Dixie Press. With Foreword by Jacques Coe and Bibliography. An historical review of financial speculation narrated in the voice of Pythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana who, in Rand and Smitley's eclectic approach, wanders through 2000 years of human history with commentary regarding major economic and financial events and the successful pursuit of wealth. Graduating from Mississippi A&M in 1911 with a second bachelors degree earned at Harvard in 1913, Clayton Rand (1891-1971) passed the Mississippi Bar in 1918 and soon thereafter purchased the Neshoba Democrat newspaper in Philadelphia, Mississippi, The DeKalb Independent in Kemper County, plus another weekly paper in Tunica County. However Rand sold his newspaper operations by the mid-1920s and moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1925 where he purchased The Dixie Press and started The Dixie Guide weekly in Gulfport. Rand may be best remembered now as the author of the autobiographical INK ON MY HANDS first published in 1940. Robert L. Smitley is best known for his 1933 book POPULAR FINANCIAL DELUSIONS. …