Boston (complete in two volumes) by Upton Sinclair - 1928

Long Beach, CA: Upton Sinclair, 1928. First Edition First Printing . Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. These books are clean, basically tight square and unmarked, but there is an embossed stamp from the Massachusetts Civic League on each title page. The mesh is showing at the front hinge volume I and the first page volume II, but the hinges remain solid, but not as tight as new. It has 755, minimally age darkened pages across the two volumes. It is lightly rubbed surface and edges, most noticeable at the spines. The boards are covered with maroon cloth, there are black titles on the spine and front. There is no publication date and we have assumed first edition. Boston was first published serially in Bookman magazine in 1928 and published later that year by Boni and Liveright in New York. Some references state that Sinclair traveled to New York to address publisher concerns about libel suits caused by the sensitive nature of the material (the Sacco and Vanzetti trial). Other reference note that Sinclair had taken to self-publishing his works contemporaneous with their publication by New York publishing houses because of concern for the state of the publishing industry at the time (we have not been able to find many examples of such self-publication other than the most famous, The Jungle, done for other reasons). Absent a publication date, we have guessed at a 1928 publication date based on the above references. We think that a difference between this version and that of Boni and Liveright (to address libel concerns) is unlikely (each version has 755 pages). What we do for certain is that this is a rare set.