LONG, Huey P. (1893–1935). Every Man a King: The Autobiography of Huey P. Long. New Orleans: National Book Company, Inc., 1933.
First edition, first printing. Octavo. viii, 343 pages, with photographic frontispiece and fifteen unnumbered leaves of photographic illustrations. Publisher’s orange cloth, lettered and decorated in red and black; in the original gold-foil pictorial dust jacket.
A remarkably well-preserved copy of Huey Long’s political autobiography, retaining the fragile original gold dust jacket with the $1.00 price printed on the front flap.
Published in 1933, Every Man a King appeared at the moment when Long was transforming himself from Louisiana governor and political phenomenon into a national challenger to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Part autobiography, part political argument and part exercise in self-mythology, the book recounts Long’s rise from rural Louisiana to the United States Senate and presents the populist politics that would shortly develop into his national Share Our Wealth movement.
The title itself became inseparable from Long. “Every Man a King” was his political slogan, later the title of the song associated with his movement, and encapsulated his argument that America’s extraordinary concentration of wealth had made genuine economic independence impossible for much of the population.
The original dust jacket is particularly striking: printed on metallic gold stock with photographs and illustrations from Long’s career, it was designed as an overtly populist object rather than a conventional literary wrapper. This copy retains the $1.00 price on the front flap, an important feature of the original jacket. Other surviving first-edition jackets are encountered with a $2.00 price; documented $1.00 examples confirm the lower price as an original issue rather than a later alteration.
Long was assassinated at the Louisiana State Capitol in September 1935, less than two years after the appearance of Every Man a King, as speculation about a presidential campaign was reaching its height. The book consequently remains one of the principal contemporary documents of one of the most extraordinary political careers in twentieth-century America.
Condition: A very attractive copy. Publisher’s cloth remains notably bright and clean, with only minor signs of age and handling. Internally clean and sound. The original metallic gold dust jacket is exceptionally fragile by nature and shows the expected light rubbing, creasing and edge wear, but survives substantially complete and presents very well.
