Pamphlet: LIGHTS OUT A Tragedy
Gale, Zona .
[New York City: American Association for Old Age Security, ca. 1927-1933?]. Only edition. Pamphlet: 5-1/4 x 3-7/8", [12]pp; black wrappers (stapled) with silver lettering and decorations; halftone photographic portrait of the writer at the last page, with facsimile signature. Very good. An account of an aged couple who lose their home, despite having worked all of their lives. At the story's end appears a letter from [Bishop] Frances McConnell as President of the American Association for Old Age Security. He writes the enactment of a state "Old Age Security Law" could prevent stories such as that of Martin and Bertha. Obviously written prior to the passage of the Social Security Act, LIGHTS OUT is a sentimental, but effective argument for enabling those earnings have provided them a meager living to grow old in the comfort and dignity of their home. Jane Addams, who served as a vice president of the Association and was a good friend of Zona Gale, wrote an endorsement of the piece. The writer's first stories featured two elderly lovers, suggesting her empathy for the elderly throughout her life. It was after she met Senator Robert M. La Follette in 1913, however, that she became an activist in a variety of causes: the American Civic Association, the Women's Trade Union League, the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the Wisconsin Peace Society and the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association. As Walter Rideout summarized in his profile of the writer in NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN, "A conscientious author, she was equally a conscientious citizen of her nation and her state, both in her devotion to idealistic causes and in her willingness to assume public responsibilities". LIGHTS OUT is an excellent and unusual example of these qualities. (Item ID: 14833)
$450.00
