A Roster of Civilizations and Culture (family association copy) Kroeber, A.L. [Theodora Kroeber] [Alfred Louis Kroeber] Association Copies,California

A family association copy, inscribed by Alfred Kroeber's wife Theodora in the year of publication to her grandson: "For Slifton [sp?] and Stoobie, from Krakie, Aug '62." (Krakie her grandmother name; her maiden named was Kracaw, so perhaps slant of that.) With the subtitle "An Essay on the Natural History of the World's Cultures, Living and Extinct," this book represents Kroeber's late attempt to create a tentative taxonomy of culture around the globe. It ended up a posthumous publication--Alfred Kroeber died in 1960--so this copy is about as good as it gets, and it's an uncommon book in general. Alfred Louis Kroeber studied with Franz Boas before making his name at UC Berkeley where he became known as the "Dean of American Anthropologists." Theodora met him as doctoral student there and was herself an accomplished anthropologist, publishing later in life, among other books, The Inland Whale and Ishi in Two Worlds, which tells the story of the last Yahi man who Alfred befriend and studied after he was brought to Berkeley. Ursula LeGuin is their daughter. A slim, tall octavo in black cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Very good with bumping to a few corners and a touch of sunning to spine ends. In a good jacket with wear to spine including a diagonal inch of loss to spine tail.