Among French Folk: Book for Vagabonds 1922 William Branch Johnson ~ Travel in France 1920s ~ First Edition

Title: Among French Folk: A Book for Vagabonds

Author: W. [William] Branch Johnson

Description: Stated First Edition [American]. Green cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine. Sightly spine cocked. Previous owner's name in pencil on ffep. Foxing (heavy foxing through the first 20 or so pages). Dust jacket shows some toning, particularly on spine; light scuffs; a few very small edge chips; not price clipped ($4.00). DJ in clear archival sleeve. 256 pp. 8.75 x 6 inches. Scarce in an even scarcer jacket.

A travelogue through France during a summer with wife Helen. Much of it depicts their interactions with the people and features quite a bit of quoted dialogue. They travel by train and by cart, passing through the countryside and through many towns and villages. Their journey begins in Paris and then moves west across the south of France through Provence and Occitanie, then up the Atlantic coast with stops in the regions of Aquitaine and Pays de la Loire, concluding in Brittany. In the narrative some of the places they pass through are Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Arles, Nimes, Sete (Cette), Lezignan-Corbieres, Carcassonne, Boussens, Saint Bertrand, Lourdes, Bareges, Luz, Dax, Arcachon, Soulac-sur-Mer, Le Verdon, Royan, Saintes, Tailleburg, Rochefort, La Rochelle, Nantes, Morbihan, Quimpe, Hanvec, Morlaix, and St. Pol de Leon.

William Branch Johnson (1893-1979) was a well known local Hertfordshire historian. The jacket illustration (the same as frontispiece) is a woodblock print by the American artist from Massachusetts, Harold Haven Brown (1869 - 1932). Brown was the director of the John Heron Institute of Art in Indianapolis between 1913 and 1921.

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good

Publisher: Small, Maynard & Company
Place: Boston
Year: 1922

Keywords: France, travel, travelogue, 1920's, Twenties, social life, manners, customs, Harold Haven Brown, Provence, Occitanie, Languedoc, Roussillon, Bordeaux, Aquitaine, Saintonge, Pays de la Loire, Brittany, personal narrative,