The Green Adventure

Athens: Ohio University Press, 1954. Hardcover. Illustrations by Dwight Mutchler. 8vo. White and green cloth with green, black and white lettering and graphics, pictorial dust jacket. viii, 178pp. Line drawings. Near fine/very good. Mild jacket edgewear and single edge chip. Sharp and tight first edition of this play about the founding of Ohio University, published to celebrate that institution's sesquicentennial. Tipped to front flyleaf is an Autograph Note Signed from Smart, heavy stock buff 5½" X 3¼" preprinted postal card, Chillicothe, OH, 21 August 1940. Addressed to Arnold F. Gates (1914-93). Near fine. Short, bold note in black ink: "Belated thanks for nice pamphlet. Good luck with Johnny Appleseed!" and boldly signed. Addressed by Smart to Gates on address side. In 1940 26-year-old Cleveland resident and future Lincoln and Civil War scholar Gates published a 14-page booklet, "Song of the Leaves: Quest of Johnny Appleseed," and since John Chapman had many Ohio associations Gates sent a copy to this Ohio author. Smart (1902-67) was an Ohio author who penned almost a dozen books, the best known perhaps being his 1938 nonfiction "R.F.D." about his move from New York City to rural Ohio.