Wead Frank River (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. No dust jacket. Yellow-stamped navy cloth boards have light wear and shelf stress to edges; softening at spine ends; spine is slightly cocked; toning to interior. Property stamps and plate on front endpaper; blacked out stamp over plate. No marks in text; no loose pages. A well preserved copy of this scarce title.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. (no dust jacket) [sharp-looking copy, nice and clean with very slight wear to a couple of corners and a tiny white stain at the bottom edge of the rear cover; one-time owner's name and date of purchase written at top of front pastedown]. Novel centered around the building of a mighty dam in the American west, to tame the waters of a mighty river. Obviously inspired by the construction of Hoover Dam, which was dedicated and already functional (although not 100% completed) on September 30, 1935, the novel was not especially well-reviewed (one reviewer called it "a hodge-podge so bewildering and repetitious that the plot becomes inarticulate), although the power of its imagery and the treatment of details attendant to the construction of the dam were generally recognized. One reviewer perhaps nailed its problems when he wrote that "in this story the individuals are unimportant [but] the canyon, the treacherous river and the toil of men to conquer both are engrossing." (Another commented that the authors "write like engineers"; I don't think it was intended as a compliment.) The authors had both done some screenwriting, and according to several reviews they had collaborated on the script for HELL DIVERS (1932) -- but the only problem with that "fact" is that although the movie was based on an original story by Wead, River isn't among the film's half-dozen or so contributing writers. (It's.