[Signed] [First Edition] America's First Spaceman — First Edition — Signed & Inscribed By Alan Shepard Jewel Spangler Smaus And Charles B. Spangler

First Edition of America's First Spaceman by Jewel Spangler Smaus and Charles B. Spangler. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1962. 159 pages, illustrated with photographs. Personally inscribed and signed by Alan B. Shepard directly on the half-title page: "To Barbara Durgin / With regards / Alan B. Shepard." The inscription and signature are directly in the book and are not on a bookplate or laid-in sheet. Published in 1962, shortly after Shepard's historic May 5, 1961 Freedom 7 flight, America's First Spaceman recounts the life and career of the first American to travel into space. Shepard was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and later commanded Apollo 14, becoming the fifth person to walk on the Moon. Copyright © 1962 by Jewel Spangler Smaus and Charles B. Spangler. Published by Doubleday & Company. Bound in the publisher's original hardcover binding and retaining the original illustrated dust jacket. The jacket retains the original A.F.S. $2.50 publisher's price on the front flap and is therefore not price-clipped. Condition: Very Good+ book in a Very Good dust jacket. Book remains clean and firmly bound, with the Shepard inscription prominently displayed. Dust jacket is complete and attractive, showing light rubbing, edge and corner wear, and minor age-related handling wear. Jacket is protected in a clear archival cover. An especially desirable copy of this early Shepard biography, signed and personally inscribed by Alan Shepard directly in the book.