Looking Forward, one of no more than 10 surviving copies of the uncorrected Advance Review Copy.
New York: The John Day Company, 1933. Advance Review Copy of the First Edition. Wraps. One of no more than 10 copies thus, this is the extravagantly rare uncorrected Advance Review issue of Looking Forward, a compilation of articles and speeches prepared for publication concurrent with the first presidential inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Looking Forward dates from Roosevelt’s heady ascendance to the nation’s highest office, released on 20 March 1933, sixteen days after FDR’s first inauguration as America’s 32nd President. America was in dire economic crisis. Most observers had interpreted FDR’s victory “less as a mandate for Roosevelt, whose plans remained largely unknown to the public, than as a repudiation of Hoover". Many skeptics still shared Walter Lippmann’s famously dismissive view of Roosevelt as “a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be president.” In the context of these volatile unknowns, FDR swiftly prepared Looking Forward, which he introduced as “essentially a compilation from many articles written and speeches made prior to March 1, 1933,” adding “parts which bind the material together as a whole.” Even this introduction by FDR, dated “Hyde Park, March 1, 1933”, was overcome by events; the last chapter in the book is President Roosevelt’s 4 March 1933 first inaugural address. Given the haste and exigencies attending publication, it is not surprising that there were a host of errors.
On March 10, 1933, 130 copies bound in wrappers were mailed to reviewers. The following day a number of errors in the text were discovered and, at FDR’s direction, the recipients were asked to return the books for correction. As a result, “about 120 were received by the publisher in answer.” Errors and corrections proved extensive. Returned and recirculated Advance Review copies had the pp. 141-42 leaf replaced and other deletions made in India ink. By the time the first trade issue was released on 20 March 1933, seven leaves were re-set to accommodate corrections, including the final page of the inaugural address.
Here is one of the approximately ten Advance Review copies that were not returned and hence not corrected – the earliest publication of the first book of FDR’s presidency.
Condition is very good indeed. The fragile wraps binding is square, tight, and surprisingly clean. The spine shows no vertical creasing, indicating it remains unread, and all of the extensive spine print remains clearly legible. Trivial loss is confined to fore edges where they overhang the text block, to the rear corners, and to the extremities of the front joint. The red and blue print remains bright. The contents are bright, with no spotting and no previous ownership marks, the text block edges lightly soiled, the initial and terminal leaves a little dog-eared.
In 1921, FDR’s promising political career was abruptly derailed by Polio, resulting in lifelong paralysis of his legs. The expectation was that he would be reduced to “a gentleman invalid”. Instead, “the ordeal… made him more serious and determined, and gradually he transferred his steely resolve away from his efforts to walk and toward an attempt to rescue a public career.” The miscalculations and misfortunes of New York’s Democratic Governor Al Smith became FDR’s catalyst.
At the 1924 and 1928 Democratic conventions, Roosevelt took to the podium – a considerable triumph of physical will – to place Smith’s name in nomination for the presidency. A month before the November 1928 election the Democrats still lacked a candidate to replace Smith as governor of New York. Recruited late by Smith, a hesitant FDR agreed to run only just before he was formally nominated. Smith was trounced, but FDR narrowly won. Four year later, FDR won the White House, having swiftly occupied both the office that Smith had relinquished and the office to which he had aspired, beating the rival to whom Smith had lost.
References: ANB; Halter pp.108-109; The Colophon, Spring 1936, No. 4, Vol. 1, pp.487-492. Item #008119
Price: $6,000.00