Bickerstaff's Books, Maps

A Bookperson's Map of the United States

A Bookman’s Idea of the United States of America. [appearing on front cover of] The Saturday Review of Literature, Volume XVII, Number 23, April 2, 1938.

[Persuasive Map.] [United States Book Sales.] Wallingford, D[aniel]. K.

New York: Saturday Review Company. 1938. 44 pp. 11 ¾ x 8 ½.” Map dimensions to neatlines: about 5 x 7 ¾.” Edge wear, minor abrasions, partial separation of magazine spine and occasional staining. Name and brief notations in pencil on front cover in green border surrounding map, briefly crossing neatline at one point. Item #3769

This interesting persuasive map portrays the sizes of the various states of the United States adjusted for their relative book sales. More specifically, as noted in the lower right corner of the map:

“The size of each state has been fixed in exact proportion to the percentage of the nation’s book purchases made within its borders. Massachusetts is twenty times its normal size, Nevada one-fiftieth its normal size. Drawn in this manner, adjoining states could not be fitted together to preserve the general outline of the map of the United States, hence the blank spaces (in green).”

A more detailed explanation and the data employed appear on p. 42 of the magazine.

Wallingford was an industrial designer and sometimes cartographer. His two most well-known maps are A New Yorker's Idea of the United States of America and This Map Presents a Bostonian's Idea of the United States of America, both of which gently lampoon the inhabitants of the respective cities. His first map, the New York satire, was printed in an edition of about 100 and given as Christmas gifts in 1932. Wallingford seemingly made those two maps into a cottage industry, issuing them in different sizes and color or black and white over many years.

An intriguing and difficult-to-find persuasive map.

[ICN 7744.].

Price: $275.00