"THEY FOLLOW THE CROPS AND THEIR LIVING AND WORKING CONDITIONS WERE DRAMATIZED IN JOHN STEINBECK'S GRAPES OF WRATH…": FIRST EDITION OF HARVEST NOMADS

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. Harvest Nomads. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1945). Oblong quarto, staple-bound as issued, original photograph paper wrappers; pp. 24. $800.

First edition of this government-published photo-essay on the work and lives of America's migrant farmworkers, featuring well-known images by FSA photographers including Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.

This striking photo-essay as intended to document the lives of America's migrant farmworkers, first brought to national attention by Steinbeck's 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Published by the Department of Labor, the book uses images by several FSA photographers such as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans (uncredited in the text). Despite publication by the government, the work is straightforward about the crushing poverty of the migrant farmworkers, apparently with the intention of encouraging federal and state governments to become engaged with the problem prior to the dismantling of wartime programs that had temporarily raised living standards. This is Bulletin Number 73 of the Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards. "1945" in pencil on front wrapper.

Slight rubbing to extremities, tiny chip to rear wrappers. A very nearly fine copy. Quite rare.