MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946. 1st edition. Cloth. Very Good/Very Good. William Steig. 1st edition, 1st printing. SIGNED. A Very Good copy in Very Good dust jacket. 8vo. Grey cloth in tan, pictorial dust jacket; top edge of text block coated red. . The dj, priced at $2.75, has light edge wear, particularly at the spine's crown and foot. Some very minor light dots on the rear board, and some white rubbing on the front board (possibly from the dj). Previous owner's bookplate on the front paste down. Inscribed and SIGNED by the author and dated Jan. 1947. Signed: To J. Donald Smith. With best regards, Eric Hodgins January 1947. The book begins in fictional Landsdale County, Connecticut, where Jim and Muriel Blandings are being shown an old farmhouse by a real estate agent. Blandings, a successful New York advertising executive, and his wife want to leave their tiny Midtown apartment, where they live with their two daughters. They fantasize that the farmhouse will meet their needs. After some negotiation, they buy the house. They soon learn that the house is structurally unsound and must be torn down. They design the perfect home in the country, imagining an idyll, but they are quickly beset by construction troubles, temperamental workmen, skyrocketing bills, threatening lawyers, and difficult neighbors. The Blandings' dream house soon threatens to be the nightmare that undoes them. Made into a Movie starring Cary Grant.