The Greatest Men's Party on Earth: Inside the Bohemian Grove *SIGNED*

*Signed* First edition, second printing (1974) copy of The Greatest Men's Party on Earth: Inside the Bohemian Grove by John van der Zee.

The Bohemian Grove is a closely guarded redwood preserve a hundred miles or so north of San Francisco. There the Bohemian Club—one of the supremely exclusive men's club in the nation—holds an annual encampment that may be, bevause opf its scale and the participants, the most remarkable tribal ritual ever celebrated by the human male. Herbert Hoover, a dedicated Bohemian but hardly (one imagines) a man much given to hyperbole, called it the greatest men's party on earth. 

What happens when throngs of the most powerful Americans—leaders in industry, finance, politics, and the professions—forgather each July beneath the towering trees and luxuriously rough it for a frenetic fortnight? John van der Zee penetrated the sacred precincts in the guise of a waiter. From his personal observations, from conversations with members willing to talk, and his delving into the curious history of the club (it was founded, with the utmost informality, by a bunch of carefree newspapermen), he has made a highly entertaining book. 

Much of what he reveals is funny; some of it almost passes belief; none of it is exactly sinister. But the book's total effect—as we contemplate the superlatively successful American male chauvinist at play—is by implication at least a little disturbing. 

Hardcover with dust jacket 

Edition/Year: First edition, 1974, Harcourt Brace Janaovich, Inc.

Condition: good vintage condition. 

Dimensions: 8.5" x 6