Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

8vo. 3 woodcuts by Edgar Miller, 2 tipped-in photographs of artwork by club members Earl Groetzinger and Karl Mattern (some light offsetting). Original pictorial wrappers with woodcut design by Miller (toning, rubbing, wear along extremities).

FIRST EDITION. The Dill Pickle Club was founded in 1914 by Canadian-born IWW organizer John "Jack" Jones. Located near Washington Square Park in Chicago (then known as "Bughouse Square" for its proximity to a nearby mental institution, the Dill Pickle Club headquarters became a legendary sanctuary for artists, writers, activists, anarchists, and members of the city's LGBTQ community. The club was tucked into a narrow alley and marked by a "DANGER" sign which pointed to an orange door lit by a green light. Among some of its most prominent speakers over the years were Upton Sinclair, Eugene Debs, William Carlos Williams, "Big Bill" Haywood, Aimee Semple McPherson, Carl Sandburg, William "Cap" Streeter, and Robert Frost. Due to mob pressures and the gradual loss of local talent the club began to decline in the 1930s and was finally shuttered once and for all in 1933 due to a rarely-enforced ordinance forbidding dance halls near churches. Jones died in 1940 and the building which housed the Dill Pickle Club was torn down four years later.