THE PEOPLE OF ALOR: A SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF AN EAST INDIAN ISLAND - INSCRIBED TO JULIA & PAUL CHILD
Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1944. First Edition. Item #7805
First Printing. Thick octavo (23.5cm); two-tone dark brown cloth, blocked, titled, and decorated in red on the backstrip; dustjacket; xvi,654,[2], with 32pp of illustrations (halftones). Inscribed by the author on the front endpaper to Julia and Paul Child: "To Julia and Paul – with many happy memories and great affection / CDB." Spine ends gently nudged, lower board corners bumped (though still sharp), with subtle tanning to endpapers, and a faint scuff to right edge of textblock; contents clean, with hinges sound; Very Good+. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $7.50), shelfworn and lightly dust-soiled, with shallow losses to crown and corners, a few tears and attendant creases; Very Good.
An early work by American cultural anthropologist Cora Alice Du Bois (1903-1991), the results of her research among the Abui people on the island of Alor in the Dutch East Indies, where she lived between 1937-1939. She joined the OSS during World War II, and in 1944 was stationed in Sri Lanka, where she served as chief of research for the Army's Southeast Asia Command. It was there that she met and befriended Julia McWilliams, who was then serving as Chief of the OSS Registry, and Paul Child, who Julia would marry in September, 1946. Du Bois met her lifelong partner, Jeanne Taylor, while stationed in Sri Lanka, with the two of them maintaining a long friendship with the Child's, visiting them in Paris after the war. A warm association between two prominent women in the OSS. 7805.
Price: $1,250.00