Description
Warren, Mrs. Wadsworth. Betty’s Policeman by Mrs. Wadsworth Warren. Illustrated by Julia Dyar Hardy. Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Co., [1917]. 61 pages, color frontispiece reproduced from the dust jacket and the front cover, 10 full-page illustrations, 7 black-and-white, 3 in color, printed on heavy rag-content paper. 26 cm x 18 cm. Green paper boards with a color-illustrated front cover. A fine bright copy in a rare surviving dust jacket as issued, which had some re-enforcement done at the flap folds and base of the spine. The dust jacket is also slightly soiled. With a gift presentation to Elizabeth “Betty” G.C. Menzies, the noted photographer and author, from her Aunt Enid on Valentine’s Day 1925. With a recommendation by J. A. McClorey, S. J., University of Detroit, positioned just after the title page. There is an advertisement for “The Famous Oz Books” of L. Frank Baum on the back panel of the dust jacket.
A story about a well-to-do little New York girl, estranged from her invalid mother by the death of her baby brother. Attached to her father, Betty Dean’s imagination was told frightening stories concocted by Margaret, her nurse, about bears under the bed and the things policemen do to little girls when they are naughty. Travelling with her mother and nurse to sunny California, a place deemed conducive to convalescence, Betty was exposed not only to her nurse’s scare tactics but also the the racial stereotyping of the time. Finding a convalescent home for her mother was complicated by Betty’s presence, as such places did not want children. Betty decides to run away, so her mother can find a nice place to convalesce. The consequent adventure creates the circumstances of Betty’s reconciliation with policemen and with her mother. WWBP001
