Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Cain, James M.. OUR GOVERNMENT. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1930.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, 241 pages. In Good plus condition and lacking issued dust jacket. Bound in publisher's gray cloth with black lettering on spine. Light soiling on spine with slight fading to text. Minor staining on front cover with more severe staining on back cover. Rubbing to corners and edges of spine. Spine slightly cocked. Texblock uncut with age toning throughout. Slight foxing on free endpapers and pastedowns. Previous owner's inscription on front free endpaper. Shelved under front counter. First book by classic author. 1374640. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Cain, James M.. Our Government. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1930.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition. (xii), 241, (1) pp. Original gray cloth with navy lettering. Near Fine with slightly pilled cloth, a little dust-soiling. Lacks dust jacket. The crime author's first book, a series of fictional characters' dialogues on the nature of the American government.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$197.50 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Sought-after first published book of the Baltimore Sun newspaperman who was later to become famous for his hard-boiled detective novels ("Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice," etc.) Cain here re-creates and exposes the workings (actual, not theoretical) of our American form of government in often hilarious colloquial dialogues of the various boards, councils, and commissions he covered, the politicians routinely introducing their remarks with an assertion that "This here stuff in the newspapers is a pack of lies from start to finish . . ." Or: "Mr. Hayes: 'We've been all over that, Mr. Friend. The bills on them schoolhouses was referred jointly to the Committee on Education and the Ways and Means Committee and we're postponing action on them until the Ways and Means takes up the money part, and then we'll consider the Flint Neck schoolhouse on its merits same as all the rest. What we're considering now is the Evolution Bill and I'll appreciate it if you'll get your mind on that so we'll maybe have something to show for our time.' / Mr. Friend: 'Let me tell you something, mister. I got elected for to git Flint Neck their new schoolhouse and I ain't got no time to set around talking about monkeys.'" Book very-good, although the acidic paper has begun to brown to the edges; original first-state jacket with dollar sign (not obese cartoon politician) to front panel is "good" with chips to edges and a considerably darkened spine. Original $2.50 price showing. 242 pp. This copy now reduced from $550.
Seller: Cat's Curiosities, Pahrump, NV, U.S.A.
CAIN, James M.. Our Government. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1930.
Price: US$300.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Second printing. Slightly cocked spine, spotting on endpapers, page edges and boards, thus very good in a good only dust jacket with shallow loss at the crown, not affecting text, splitting at the folds, and toning. Cain's first book, a collection of "dialogues" or short pieces on politics and government that Cain wrote as reportage for various newspapers, and that display the concise but gritty style that eventually made it into his fiction.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Cain, James. Our Government. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1930.
Price: US$349.99 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First printing gray cloth titled in black, slightest spine lean. Two tiny spots to rear board, corners/spine ends faintly softened. Unmarked. The second printing price-clipped DJ in mylar is toned at spine and rear panel, chipped at spine ends, taped at spine head and has large chip to top corner of rear panel. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall
Seller: curtis paul books, inc., Northridge, CA, U.S.A.
Cain, James M.. Our Government. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1930.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Near Fine in a Good second-issue jacket, unclipped ($2.50), chipped at the top inch of the spine and extending onto the back panel, generally toned. Grey cloth, toned at the spine with black ink lettering. Square and firmly bound with a dark grey top stain, former owner's bookplate inside the front board, clean internally. Cain's political commentary about "what manner of men it is whom you as a taxpayer support."
Seller: Carpetbagger Books, Woodstock, IL, U.S.A.
CAIN, James M.. Our Government.. New York: Knopf, 1930., 1930.
Price: US$640.96 + shipping
Description: Second printing. With a presentation inscription from the author reading "To Miss Hortense Alden--That she may be enabled to cast her ballot more intelligently at the next election, James M. Cain." Spine darkened with a faint dampstain on the covers but certainly very good in the d/w which is chipped and worn.
Seller: David Mason Books (ABAC), Toronto, ON, Canada
Cain, James M.. OUR GOVERNMENT. Knopf, New York, 1930.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. The hard-boiled mystery writer's first regularly published book, essays of sorts in a series of imagined dialogues on the workings and non-workings of government. Octavo gray cloth boards stamped in black (or perhaps dark blue) on front and spine, publisher's logo blindstamped on back board; in first-issue dust jacket with dollar sign on front. Top edge stain faded and lightly foxed otherwise near fine in good or better dust jacket with toning, moderate chipping, some soiling and general wear, A scarce book, scarcer still in any jacket much less this first-issue one.
Seller: Quill & Brush, member ABAA, Middletown, MD, U.S.A.
CAIN, James M.. Our Government. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1930.
Price: US$2800.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition. About fine in attractive, very good example of the first issue dustwrapper decorated with dollar signs (versus the second issue jacket with a bloated plutocrat on the front panel) with some older professional restoration. Inscribed by the author: "To Charlie, J.M.C." Cain's first book, a collection of "dialogues" or short pieces on politics and government that Cain wrote as reportage for various newspapers, and that display the concise but gritty style that eventually made it into his fiction. Despite some benign neglect of this title by collectors because it leans towards non-fiction, nice copies and especially signed copies, are exceptionally uncommon.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.