Around the World in New York

New York/London: D. Appleton-Century Company. Near Fine in Very Good+ dj. 1938. 4th printing. Hardcover. [a nice clean book with minimal shelfwear; the jacket has a bit of edgewear, some creasing near the bottom edge of the front panel, and some fading along the spine]. (pen and ink drawings) "A travel book written by one who has traveled slowly and fondly through the city, lived in almost every district, studied at first hand every foreign quarter. He has discoursed with the inhabitants, listened sympathetically to their tales of joy and woe, tasted their food and danced at their weddings. For twenty years Mr. Bercovici has made New York his hobby. He has had an eye for every nook and corner of interest, and has nosed out many a queer place in the greatest of all cities about which even the oldest inhabitants know nothing. A linguist, he has been able to form intimate associations with people wherever he has lived. So, for those who cannot do what he has done, against the historical background of the city he throws a vast panorama of the twenty or more nationalities living between the Hudson and the East River on Manhattan Island." First published in 1924; I've never seen a jacketed copy of the first edition (or any earlier than this one, for that matter), but I suspect that this fabulous jacket may have been exclusive to the 1938 printing. (In any event, it's quite uncommon.) ***This book is among the nearly 150 items offered in ReadInk's new Catalog Number 4, "Booking Passage: Books on the Immigrant Experience." You can access this catalog and its contents in any one of three ways: (1) email us to request a PDF to be emailed to you; (2) view or download the catalog from the link on our website's main page; (3) browse the books individually (including a few that didn't make the cut for the catalog) on our website under these two subject headings: "Immigration: Fiction" and "Immigration: Non-Fiction." .