My Year of the Book - Day 101: The Federal Writers Project was an offshoot of FDR’s “New Deal, and was one of the few times in history that a governmental foray into the arts resulted in something positive. Set up under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration, the FWP gave jobs to thousands of unemployed men and women during the depth of the Depression. The most lasting result of the FWP was the American Guide Series (also called the WPA Guides), which Lewis Mumford called “the finest contribution to American patriotism that has been made in our generation,” and which included a hardcover guide to each of the 48 states (and Alaska and Puerto Rico), several major cities, and thousands of other hard and softcover books and pamphlets as well. If you collect these as I do, Jerry Mangione’s book, “The Dream and the Deal” (1972), is both a program history and a biography of many of the major personalities involved, and is a must have. #wpa #federalwritersproject #fdr #newdeal #wpaguides #americanguide #rarebooks #firstedition #signedbook #book #bookish #bookgeek #bookworm #booknut #bookstagram #mylibrary #americanhistory #history #booklove #bookaddict
