New York: Fleet Publishing Corporation, 1959

8vo, pp. 288. Original maroon boards, lettered in gilt on spine. A near fine copy in a very good, price-clipped dustwrapper, sunned at spine, and with light wear to corners and spine ends.

First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 'For Bess - a friend of my friend Elmer Leterman with best wishes Sigmund Spaeth July 1959.'

Sigmund Spaeth was an American musicologist with a special interest in the folk sources of popular songs. He was a regular panellist on musical quiz shows of the 1950s and 60s, where he picked up the nickname 'The Tune Detective'. Elmer Leterman was an insurance magnate, who founded the Leterman-Gortz Corporation the year this book, a collection of Spaeth's journalism and essays, was published and inscribed.