Maine, The American Guide Series

NORTHEAST. 
Guidebook. 

The American Guide Series is one of the great cultural accomplishments in American history. Originating out of the larger and equally impressive Federal Project One, known in the day as simply: “Federal One,” this program was specifically designed to provide jobs for out of work creative artists during the Great Depression (and was itself a tiny sliver of the sweeping Works Progress Administration). It would provide opportunities for thousands of writers, researchers, painters, musicians, and actors to support themselves in their crafts across the mid-late 1930s and on into the 1940s. Costing about 1% of the WPA’s total budget allocation, it remains one of the most cost-effective government programs ever, given the mountains of material and the scope of entertainment it churned out. Mobile theatrical productions, jazz combo to orchestral concerts, and the celebrated post office mural project would come primarily to small towns and localities the country over, providing a proud cultural boost to a nation struggling through lean times. Designed to bring art “to the masses,” Federal One was New Deal to its core. It was also responsible for funding and staffing the individual state units that would produce the ambitious American Guide Series. The Writer’s Project segment of Fed One would eventually produce thick heavily-researched history-rich tour guides for all 48 states, most territories, city guides for metropolises, mid- and small-sized cities alike, and a number of national parks to boot. Its sheer scope is still amazing to consider given that it was all accomplished inside a decade and long before digital word processing, photography, and design layout made such productivity routine. The AGS guides, hard bound volumes often topping 400 pages each, include detailed pre-interstate era driving tours + maps, all meticulously traced by an army of staff. They are impressive to say the least, if hard to imagine riding side-saddle with tourists, given the slim guidebooks / brochures most of us know as touring aids of the recent past. Many of the AGS volumes would go down as classics in the travel / touring field. They made a determined effort to widen the aperture on the American past and present by including African American and other American minority histories, women’s and labor histories. Again, the AGS was New Deal through and through, its focus not just on the well known historical figures of America’s regions, but a more comprehensive “people’s history” telling of the story of those that had contributed to the working striving spirit of America, if anonymously. AGS volumes continue to be highly sought collectors items to this day … As with all AGS guides, “Maine, A Guide Down East” (a bit of a misnomer, the tours spanning the state and not just the “down east” coastal region) begins with a background covering the state’s abundant natural qualities and a section on the Abenaki Indians who long called the region home. It moves onto various modern industries (lumber and fishing chief among them) and its then modern character: “From Waterways to Airways,” “Folklore and Folkways,” etc. Including the all-important “Down East,” tailored tours take the 1930s motorist tourist from Portland to Fort Kent (on the Quebec border), Rangeley in the west to Eastport, the eastern tip of the U.S.; all of it supported by black-and-white photos. The condition of this volume is fantastic for 1937. AGS guides were often bought as gifts and sat on shelves for most of their existence (being somewhat impractical on-the-road guides, given their size). As a result, finding these in such great condition is common; such is the case here. There is no foxing, just a little page edge discoloration, slight wearing on the spine edges, with some signs of humidity warping on early pages. The fold-out “Maine Transportation Map” is, likewise, in fantastic shape. 

Condition: Used Very Good. 
Travel / Touring. 
The Federal Writers' Project of the WPA for the State of Maine. 
Houghton Mifflin, 1937. 
Hardcover (First Edition), 476 pgs, 5 x 8" / 1.75 lb