Boys' Life: For All Boys -- 1949 volume.
New York: Boy Scouts of America, 1949. Hardcover. Folio. Black cloth with gilt spine lettering. Varying paginations (ca. 500pp total). Extensive illustrations, line drawings, advertisements. Fine/very good. Binding is superb and tight; text block shows typical mild age toning but no brittleness, a few random small edge tear (most neatly and archivally mended), faint occasional wear. Item #52712
Outstanding bound volume containing 12 issues (January through December) from 1949, handsomely bound with all original color front wrappers bound in (and all but the January issue rear wrapper also present). Of special interest is the appearance in the April and May issues of 32-year-old sci-fi master Robert Heinlein with the short story "Nothing on the Moon Ever Happens" -- he also appeared in "Boys' Life" in 1950 and 1952. Heinlein's first appearance in print was in 1939, then again after World War Two ended his appearances resumed in the late 1940s. Also of interest is the handsome decorative-edged archival bookplate on the front pastedown signed huge and bold in black marker by William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt -- his characteristic simple "Bill" through which he draws two horizontal bars in thick green marker. Hillcourt has articles in seven of these dozen issues. Hillcourt (1900-92) was a Boy Scouts of America pioneer and the principal author of the "Official Boy Scout Handbook," as well as author of a biography of BSA founder Robert Baden-Powell and other scouting titles; from 1929 to 1988 he penned an advice column for "Boys' Life" magazine. Quite an unusual volume.
Price: $150.00