This Smoking World
Hamilton, A[lbert] E[dward]; M[ichael] J. Gallagher, [illus.]. THIS SMOKING WORLD. New York: The Century Co., [1927]. xvii, 227 pages. Frontispiece and numerous illustrations in the text. Original quarter gray cloth over patterned paper-covered boards with gilt lettering on spine and black title piece on the front cover. 20.5 x 13 cm. Very good in good plus dust jacket. Minor wear, tanning to front endpapers and half-title from previously laid-in materials, light offsetting from the frontispiece to the title, a few small traces of marginal foxing. The jacket shows small chips to the ends of the spine panel (up to 1 cm deep), several other tiny edge chips, and a little sun to the spine panel.
FIRST EDITION. Essays on the history, purposes, and pleasures of smoking. The author also discusses the moral and medical arguments against smoking. These he treats with both consideration and with a good deal of skepticism, though he includes one chapter explicitly denouncing smoking by juveniles. In "Our Ladies' Nicotine," he discusses the growing use of tobacco by women, the increased social acceptance of female smokers, strategies employed by manufacturers to market tobacco products to women, and efforts aimed at curbing smoking among women.
Alfred Edward Hamilton (b. 1887), an educational psychologist, was a "lecturer at the Carnegie Institution, teacher at the Interlaken School, Commissioner of Conciliation in the United States Department of Labor, and editorial writer” (pref. to his book, “Boyways: Leaves from a Camp Director's Diary“, 1930, based on his experience as the director of Camp Ironwood in Harrison, Maine). Hamilton also wrote “The Real Boy and the New School“ (1925) and “Sportsmanship: A Bridge Of Understanding Between The Nations Of The World“ (1926). During World War I, he wrote several articles discussing the eugenics movement.
The book is adorned with charming woodcuts by Michael Joseph Gallagher (1898-1965). A native of Scranton, Gallagher was active in the W.P.A. Art Program and is especially remembered for his prints depicting the Pennsylvania coal-mining country. Uncommon in the dust jacket.
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