Tuesday, March 13, 2007

An aside from the Old Librarian

Interested in those 1930s guides to the states I am drawing this blog from? Most libraries will have a copy for that state, and bigger libraries may have those for other states as well. If you're curious about what's out there in libraries, check your local library website. A site that works for the whole US is WorldCat.org, which draws on library catalogs from all over to tell what's around.

You can buy the guidebooks too, they are often available at used book dealers for modest prices. A good online site is abebooks.com - in the author line put writers project, and in title put "state name."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have several 1920's ALA green book tour guides along with some 1930's and 1941 AAA tour guide books. It is fun to follow the road directions in these books. One that I have, as I remember (right now they are packed away in preparation for my moving to TN) is 1922, tho I also have a 1918 Goodrich touring guide for New England.
One of the most difficult to find are for the Southeastern states - I finally found two from 1937 and 1938 on ebay, where I got the others from.

Hudsonly,
Alex B

The Old Librarian said...

Intersting Alex, I wasn't familiar with these guide books. My grandfather was a chauffer in St. Louis though, ca1910-16, and I have one of his old road atlas. He would drive the Locomobile to Cape Cod and meet the employers family there, who had taken the train out!