Joe Pine

Lamoni, IA: Herald Publishing House, 1916. Hardcover. Illustrations by Paul N. Craig. Small 8vo. Green cloth with red rules and black lettering and decorations. 352pp. Frontispiece, 7 full-page called-for plates. Very good. Binding a bit edgeworn and rubbed, though internally fine. A tight, attractive first edition of this scarce fiction by the grandson of Mormon founder Joseph Smith Jr. This superb presentation copy bears a full page inscription from the author on frontispiece verso: "Mrs Inez Kinney: / Having known the joy / and beauty of the prairie / days, now gone for-ever, / you may perhaps appreciate / my pen picture of the / prairie, even if they are / not the best. Oh, yes, / and I must thank you / for posing for the heroine / As a peace offering to / atone for the liberty taken / in drafting you for that / position, please accept / this book with my / compliments -- / Elbert A. Smith." Inez Kinney Gaylord (1882-1974) was a New York-born worker for the YWCA who in 1914 married Edward K. Gaylord (1873-1974), the noted owner/publisher of the Daily Oklahoman as well as radio and television entrepreneur and civil leader/philanthropist. How and when Smith crossed paths with Inez Kinney is not known, but she impressed him enough to become the inspiration for this book's heroine, Molly Brady. Also, laid in is an unsigned Autograph Note pencilled on a heavy stock 5" X 3" card (undated, but of relatively modern vintage) in which the unknown writer transcribes a letter written from Elbert Smith to his/her grandmother, Luda Cook Smith of Mason City, Iowa, in which the author records "I modeled two characters after your father & mother...." That father and mother were Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor winner Captain Henry I. Smith (1840-1910) and his wife Delight Bogardus Smith (1845-1924). Whether all these Smiths are related to Elbert Smith is unclear. Elbert A. Smith (1871-1959) wrote many fiction and nonfiction titles with a Mormon emphasis; he was a leader of the RLDS Church (Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), serving as a member of that church's First Presidency (1909-38) and as Presiding Patriarch (1939-58). A very scarce title with absolutely unique and lengthy author inscription to his heroine's model.