Treat 'Em Rough; Letters from Jack the Kaiser Killer
Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers, 1918. First edition. Hardcover. 8vo. [7], 9-160 pp. Green cloth with an illustrated paper label of Jack the Kaiser Killer hitting a baseball shaped like the Kaiser's head out of the park, black and red lettering on the front board, red lettering on the spine. Illustrated with a frontispiece and several full-page black and white drawings by Frank Crerie. The second issue, with the poem printed on the verso of the first full-page illustration. An American anti-German propaganda book also meant to function as a humorous story concerning baseball, a WWI soldier's experiences at the front, and his attitudes towards coming home. Bruccoli I 223. Johnson 309. ADNB, Joy Castro, "Latimer, Margery Bodine, (06 February 1899–16 August 1932)". Margery Latimer's copy, with her signed bookplate on the front pastedown and a gift inscription to her on the free front endpaper. Latimer also pasted in a newspaper cartoon, of a dog standing on top of a tank. The cartoon is captioned: "Treat 'Em Rough is the slogan of the tanks. Jack the Kaiser Killer is not a Tank but he likes the ring of the slogan." Latimer was an early twentieth-century Midwestern feminist and author of controversial books such as This is My Body. Her stories challenged traditional conceptions of gender and family dynamics. She was the subject of a miscegenation scandal because of her marriage to Jean Toomer. She died in childbirth at the age of 33. Near Fine. Item #00009540
A Near Fine book lacking its dust jacket with minute rubbing to the textblock and a spot of offsetting on the rear free endpaper.
Price: $150.00