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8 pp. Illustrated with photographs of a young Hayakawa, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, and other Jazz musicians. 11½x8", original photographic wrappers.

A very rare imprint, with the Canadian-born professor’s first institutional affiliation, the Illinois Institute of Technology, crossed on out front cover, and his inscription in green ink: “With the best wishes of S.I. Hayakawa.” This was the text of a Poetry Magazine arts lecture, focusing on Chicago’s original Jazz Age entertainment district at 35th and State Streets, given by Hayakawa while an academic during World War II, when he escaped internment because of his Canadian citizenship. After achieving renown as author of a classic book on Semantics, he moved to California, later becoming the controversial President of San Francisco State University during the turbulent 1960s, and, afterwards, conservative Republican US Senator from California. A life-long Jazz aficionado, Hayakawa often linked musical principles to his academic studies. This early Hayakawa imprint is very rare. There are only two copies held by American institutions, neither of them in California.