Editore: American Labor Education Service, New York, 1946
Da: Stony Hill Books, Madison, WI, U.S.A.
Soft cover. Condizione: Near Fine. Center-stapled 8.3 x 11 inches stiff light tan printed paper covers, 16 + [16] pages plus 2 sample programs tipped in [each of 4 pages], clean and unmarked with light corner bumps.
Editore: Summer School for Office Workers, New York, 1946
Da: Bolerium Books Inc., San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Newsletter. [8p.], 8.5x11 inch mimeographed sheets stapled together, very good. The progressive summer school was coeducational, though most attendees were women.
Editore: For Affiliated Schools for Workers [Later the American Labor Education Service (ALES)], New York, 1933
Da: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
Prima edizione
First Edition. 28cm. Staple bound white paper stock titled to first leaf. 32pp typewritten rectos only, mimeo'd. Some toning to the edges of the front cover, some light chipping and creasing to the spine edge of the title leaf, "1933" added in ink to the upper front corner of the title sheet, strong and solid; internally clean and fresh. A very good copy of an object clearly not intended to last. The first significant progress report issued by the ASW/ALES under the helm of dauntless and energetic educator Eleanor Gwinnell Coit, whose name appears at the end of the document, and who was appointed to the project in 1929 when it was in its infancy and continued steering the ALES through various advances in workforce education until its disbanding in 1962. Coit's advocacy for worker's education continued unflaggingly until her death in 1976. The primary objective of the ALES was to provide straightforward access to education for the working class, access to advocacy and representation for those denied significant autonomy, and to advance their rights and safeguards, often through support of union initiatives and programs. An interesting takeaway from the report is how many of the "summer" education projects took place on spaces provided by historically women's colleges and higher education institutions like Bryn Mawr, Coit herself had followed the then unusual route of higher education earning her degree from Smith, before continuing and achieving her Master's from Columbia. A significant amount of the administrational and organizational labor of the early stages of the ALES was performed by women volunteers in higher educational institutions. The ALES under Coit also introduced a number of initiatives devoted to the publication of educational books for workers, the majority of which were written by women who in the early 1930's would have found it very difficult to gain traction and recognition in the field of educational and social reform, page 11 of this document lists a number of early publications and speaks of the creation of a required reading list for students comprising fiction, poetry, plays and biographies dealing with the social and economic problems faced by the laboring population and their families: "The Educational Secretary is the Chairman of a committee of Local #189, American Federation of Teachers, under the auspices of which has been prepared an ANNOTATED LIST OF MATERIAL FOR WORKERS' CLASSES, and a SUGGESTED READING LIST." Footnote #1 at the base of p.8. Necessarily scarce and ephemeral, with only a single institutional holding of this title.