1705

Odyssey of "My Pious Friends & Drunken

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:225.00 USD Estimated At:450.00 - 650.00 USD
Odyssey of  My Pious Friends & Drunken
Odyssey of "My Pious Friends & Drunken Companions." Archive spanning three decades, 1920s to 1950s, of this book by Frank Shay and John Held, Jr. Shay, a book dealer in Massachusetts, who was also an editor of theatrical-related material, and Held, a cartoonist and book illustrator, collaborated on this book Songs and Ballads, collected by Shay, with illustrations (or "illuminations" as they are described on book cover) by Held. Three different versions of the book are in this archive, of varying appearance. Archive also contains 73 newspaper reviews in a scrapbook, 12 advertisements for the book, and about 75 letters, documents, etc., relating to its bumpy journey through the publishing jungle: 13 T.Ls.S. from Shay, each signed, to the publisher; copies of about 38 T.Ls.S., memos, etc., from publisher to Shay; 2 T.Ls.S. from Held, signed with two other documents; sample of a dustjacket with type covering all flaps; and 9 legal documents covering copyrights, inventory, sales and bankruptcy. Fascinating details. Individual letters are worthy of display in themselves. Frank Shay's letters are particularly effective: Regarding copyrights, "...To these people our books are pretty small stuff and we are being used merely to establish their rights so that they can get at the bigger potatoes, the movies, the records, and either ASCAP or BMI..." (1942). To his publisher, "...By the way, there is one mail a day from New York and it is an old Wellfleet (Mass.) customer to meet the mail. Therefore, little is gained by sending letters Special Delivery...I've been going over my Pious Friends, seeking to determine what is what and what isn't what, but between trying to keep up my commitments on current work, scrap driver, and a present three-day search for enemy saboteurs allegedly landing here, my mind is a bit dizzy. With current work out of the way, I could go to...Library of Congress, trace out the origins and conditions of most of the songs: a slow, painful job at the best..." (1942). Attached to a five-page list of songs: "I arose from a bed of pain...to make up the attached schedule of the origin of the songs in the two books. In my condition...I am suffering from intestinal and stomach ulcers and forbidden every kind of activity...Any expenses you are put to in the matter of looking up copyrights is to be charged against the book and not to me. Now I've got to get back to bed...Shay." Corner with staple touched by dampstaining causing some rust, affecting no text. Else good to very fine.