Our Government

New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Very Good+. 1930. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket, but encased in a nice-looking facsimile reproduction of the original first edition jacket; see 2nd image posted with this listing) [minor external soiling, attractive vintage bookplate of Austin Jenkins Lilly on front pastedown, 1946 newspaper clipping about Cain's proposal for an American Authors' Authority affixed to both sides of front endpaper]. NOTE again that this book bears a FACSIMILE dust jacket, which has not been factored in to our pricing. The author's first book, which in he sets out to illustrate (through satirical pieces written almost entirely in play/dialogue format) the workings of American government, from the Presidential down to the local level. Some of the pieces had previously been published in H.L. Mencken's "The American Mercury," and Mencken is first in the author's acknowledgments, in gratitude for "[giving] me many inspirational talks when my interest flagged." .