[Signed] Once Around the Sun ATKINSON, Brooks [Very Good] [Hardcover]

Description

Octavo, 376pp., illustrated by Don Freeman. A crisp, very good copy in the publisher's pale blue cloth, with some flattened dog-eared creases to perhaps two dozen leaves, and a similar number of leaves with light pencil markings to margins. In a good only dust jacket, with the spine dulled and stained, and some chips to the edges. This copy SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Atkinson on the front free endpaper in the year of publication to longtime radio interviewer Mary Margaret McBride: ""For Mary Margaret McBride: With thanks for her sympathetic reading of the book. Brooks Atkinson May 3, 1951."" There is a paper remnant on the same page, consistent with the review slips done by Harcourt Brace during this period; good evidence that this was a review copy sent by the publisher to McBride in advance of her interview with Atkinson. McBride was, for several decades, the host of one of America's most popular radio shows, geared towards housewives at the lunch hour. She was known as the ""First Lady of Radio,"" and an appearance on her program was a significant event for any celebrity. ""Once Around the Sun"" is a daily journal-style memoir, in which Atkinson recorded his daily reflections and experiences for one full year. Atkinson was a long-time highly regarded theatre critic for the New York Times.