Description

Published 1938: First UK Edition / Hardcover / Good Condition

Original black cloth with red titles on the spine no jacket. 558 clean and bright pages, previous booksellers stamps on the title page and first free page, separation showing on inner hinge could be readdressed with some glue, text block firm and intact, some corners turned. Boards slightly rubbed and faded with time consistent with age, chipped on the bottom edge and bumped on the corners.

Collection can be arranged by Appointment. Churchtown, Dublin 14
Postage service is also available.

Set in Chicago during the Depression, this is the story of a young man who dreamed of being an architect, but finds himself working in a mail order house. Upon its publication, Kirkus Reviews stated that Halper "is the foremost of the proletarian writers today and this is his most ambitious book, and singularly timely in its analysis of the inside of labor conditions in a big organization.

Albert Halper was born on a kitchen table on the west side of Chicago on August 3, 1904, the son of Lithuanian immigrants from Vilna. His father, Isaac, owned a series of tiny grocery stores; his mother, Rebecca, stayed at home, raising their six children. After graduating Marshall High School, young Albert worked in a factory, warehouse, and post office, all the time committed to becoming a writer. the death of his mother in 1928 eliminated his sole reason for remaining in Chicago, and when offered a promotion at the post office, he quit the next day and soon left for New York.