Etiquette In Society, In Business, and At Home
New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1922. First Edition. Hardcover. 1st edition of “the blue book of social usage” with an enormous, and largely positive, impact on modern life, suggesting throughout, that today’s pervasive love of lights, noise, and commotion are not social instincts. Near fine, in the scarce dustjacket, with tears and chips along the edges, strengthening in a few places along the folds, and the spine a darker shade of gray than the panels, but still good, and copies lacking the jacket are all 9–hour plane rides with a small child kicking the back of your seat. The text has been updated many times to reflect contemporary lifestyles, but this is the original, wide ranging enough to include the still useful (and practical) guidelines of how to write a thank you note, or make an introduction, or walk the streets, and the less practical responsibilities of a parlor maid, or how to use a finger bowl, or how to address a Duke. This is pure Americana, a significant book, and plenty scarce in jacket. If you are both naturally and perfectly civilized, there is nothing here to learn. If you are like the rest of us, just open it at random, to almost any page, and it will take you for a few minutes. Close it, do something else, come back, open it again, and be taken some other, but equally useful place, for another few minutes. The entertainment is endless and enduring. And here is some justification for buying it, beyond its influence, importance, and rarity in dustjacket. It is so iconic, that the inch and a half it will take on your shelves, will prove well worth the space, if for no other reason than as a vaccination against narrow focus acquiring the deadening effect of habit. Near fine / good. Item #72
Price:
$2,750.00