Signed book: America: Why I Love Her. First edition. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1977. Quarter-leather-bound hardcover with leather slipcase, 7 x 10.25, 144 pages. Signed and inscribed in ballpoint on a front blank, “To Dan Franklin, a little philosophy and a lot of music, John Wayne.” The book, a collection of music and lyrics, photos, and Wayne’s “patriotic” musings, was issued as a follow-up to Wayne’s 1973 spoken-word album of the same name. The album and book attained a certain notoriety for their inclusion of a song titled “The Hyphen,” which contains the line: “It seems to me that when a man calls himself an ‘Afro-American,’ a ‘Mexican-American,’ ‘Italian American,’ an ‘Irish-American,’ ‘Jewish-American,’ What he’s sayin’ is, ‘I’m a divided American.’” The slightest suggestion of rubbing to extremities, otherwise very fine, clean condition. PSA/DNA Auction LOA and R&R COA.
