The Unsinkable Mrs. Jay [aka Molly Brown]

New York: Covici Friede. Near Fine. (c.1934). First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [tight clean copy, light wear to extremities, one-time owner's address label on front pastedown; text from jacket flaps affixed to ffep with tape]. Very scarce novel inspired by the life of Mrs. J.J. ( Molly) Brown, lauded by the authors in their Foreword for her "splendid courage, pioneer spirit, adventurous and romantic achievements." "Women give an age its color," they go on to say, and "Mrs. Brown was a glowing character whose career ran through the history of our country for the past twenty-five years. All of the characters in [this book] are fictitious, and all of the events narrated, pure fiction; but the story has its fount and inspiration in the life of a very noble woman [who embodies] the highest spiritual qualities of modern women; emancipated; individual; independent." This book, published just two years after her death, undoubtedly attributed to Mrs. Brown's legendary status, not that she needed any help -- she was her own best publicity agent, once having been quoted as saying that "I don't care what the newspapers say about me, just so they say something." The book spans her life from childhood, through Colorado gold rush days, her survival of the Titanic disaster, her subsequent political activities (she ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1914), and ends with an account of her service entertaining the troops in France during World War I. (Despite the authors' "fictional" disclaimer, by the way, the book contains plenty of reference to real-life figures and events, and is probably no more fictional than the tall tales Mrs. Brown perpetuated about herself.) .