Hurry Up Please Its Time

New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. Near Fine in Very Good dj. (c.1946). First Edition. Hardcover. [nice clean copy, minor bump to bottom front corner; jacket modestly edgeworn, with a tiny closed tear and a bit of diagonal creasing at bottom right corner of front panel, still a decent example of a jacket that doesn't wear well]. Why isn't Elizabeth Hawes as much a household name as Germaine Greer or Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinem or Susan Faludi or any of those dames? Take this book, for instance -- a caustically witty, perceptive, and unrelenting analysis of (and assault on) "the corruptions of various national institutions -- unions and the N.A.M. [National Association of Manufacturers], certain political philosophies and pressure groups" that she based on her own experiences working as a labor organizer for the United Auto Workers during the then-recently-concluded war. Hawes's voice was her very own, and despite the fact that it was written more than 70 years ago, the language is fresh and funny, and the ideas expressed would still raise more than a few hackles even today. Per the blurb, "no one escapes with halos intact, and no one can read the words of this wry iconoclast without both discomfort and exhilaration." Hawes was a fascinating character; after having achieved great success in the fashion industry, she closed her business at the outset of World War II and went to work as a columnist for the left-leaning newspaper PM and, subsequently, a union organizer and airplane-factory worker. (At the time of this book's publication, by the way, she had been recently divorced from theatre and film director Joseph Losey, and it shouldn't surprise anybody to learn that she was later blacklisted for her numerous lefty affililations.) Anyway, do yourself a favor and get acquainted with this largely-forgotten author. You can thank me later. .