The Rise of the American Film: A Critical History

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. Very Good in Very Good dj. (c.1939). Later Printing. Hardcover. [several thick black marker lines at top of front endpaper (apparently an obliteration of a previous owner's name and address) but otherwise a decent clean copy, modestly shelfworn but with notable weaking of the front hinge (which is just starting at the lower end), a short tear at the bottom edge of the front endpaper and the following page, and a little bit of black schmutz along the bottom edges of both endpapers; the jacket has tiny chips at the upper and lower rear hinges, and is lightly edgeworn but still attractive]. (B&W photographs) The "first comprehensive and critical history of the American movie as a commodity, as an art, and as a social agency," with a very New Deal-ish emphasis on films' relationship to society; a very influential work and an acknowledged classic of film scholarship. Although this printing is undated, it seems to date from the mid-1950s (there's a code, "I.5.56," on the copyright page, possibly indicating a 1956 printing) -- in which case, I have to say, it was an odd choice on the part of the publisher to do a straight reprint, as opposed to a revised or updated version. I guess they didn't consider that anything of much importance had happened in the cinema world since before World War II -- not CITIZEN KANE, not the Consent Decree, not TV, not the first notable cracks in the Production Code, etc. .