MICHAEL BROTHER OF JERRY

1917. Mountfort. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917. 10 pp undated ads. Original red-brown cloth with dog silhouettes in black.

First Edition of this posthumously-published book, published about six months after JERRY OF THE ISLANDS. Though both books were written by Jack in Honolulu as cash-raising hackwork, MICHAEL, BROTHER OF JERRY was a better book. It argued that far worse than the Social Pit for men were the cages for trained dogs and circus animals. All the foul tricks of the trade were exposed... So effective was his indignation that hundreds of London clubs sprang up on the publication of the book, dedicated to ending the trade in performing animals. [Sinclair] By the time Jack wrote this book in late 1915 (on his and Charmian's second trip to Hawaii during 1915-1916), Jack was swilling so much fruit juice, as it helped flush out the toxins his kidneys couldn't handle, that he was becoming quite fat. He rarely stirred out of his kimono and his hammock. He felt too ill to walk more than a block, and he preferred to take the chauffeur and the car for the shortest excursion. This is a near-fine copy (very slightly rubbed at the extremities), but the title page bears a blind-stamp, and the paste-down an ink-stamp, of an early Maine bookseller. Sisson & Martens p. 96; Blanck 11974.