[First Edition] Best Broadcasts of 1939-40 Max Wylie...

Published in 1940 by Whittlesey House, a division of McGraw-Hill, Best Broadcasts of 1939-40 stands as an authoritative documentary anthology from the Golden Age of American radio. Selected and edited by Max Wylie, then Director of Script and Continuity at the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), this second annual volume preserves twenty-six complete, unabridged broadcast scripts aired between June 30, 1939, and June 30, 1940. Spanning network drama, variety, educational broadcasts, and poetry, the collection features landmark comedic routines from Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and Burns and Allen, alongside avant-garde verse drama by W. H. Auden and Norman Corwin. Most crucially, it captures immediate history as it was transmitted into American living rooms, including William L. Shirer's pivotal on-the-scene CBS broadcast from the railway car at Compiègne detailing the French armistice. Bound in an eye-catching two-tone cloth binding pairing an unbleached cream upper section with deep navy blue cloth below, the volume exhibits unmistakable late Art Deco machine-age graphic styling. The spine is stamped with dynamic lightning bolt flourishes, while the upper front cover features an iconic line-rendered broadcast microphone. Preserved inside this copy is the original clipped front flap of the dust jacket, retaining the original three-dollar publication price and prospectus summary. Sourced directly from the estate collection of a distinguished Washington, D.C.-area National Institutes of Health (NIH) anthropologist, this volume demonstrates remarkably firm hinges, clean text leaves, and gentle shelf wear consistent with careful handling. This piece measures approximately 8.5 inches in height, 5.75 inches in width, and 1.25 inches in depth, and weighs 1.4 pounds.

Estimate:$40

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