Description
The first edition of Van Loon’s Geography by Hendrik Van Loon, inscribed to Anna Roosevelt, at the suggestion of her mother, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Octavo, xx, 525pp. Dark red cloth, title stamped on the spine, illustration on label affixed to front cover. The first printing, with matching dates on the title and copyright page. Complete with frontispiece portrait and 38 full page plates. Wear to spine, a few abrasions to red cloth. Includes a laid-in silk bookmark from Franklin D. Roosevelt, celebrating the holiday season (no other known examples found). In the publisher’s fold-out dust jacket, $3.75 on the front flap, light soiling to panels, wear at head of the spine, toning and loss of color to the spine, a very good example.
Inscribed to the Roosevelt’s only daughter: “Anna Roosevelt Dall / Her Book / As Presented To Her / By Her Mother / At Whose Suggestion An / Extra Elephant Was / Added / By / Hendrik Willem Van Loon / XXXII.”
Hendrik Willem van Loon (1882-1944) was a Dutch-American historian, journalist, and popularizer of history whose book The Story of Mankind won the very first Newbery Medal in 1922. He was also a close friend and intellectual companion of Eleanor Roosevelt, who often invited him to Hyde Park and The White House.
