Friendly Songs for Friendly People, 2 vols (SIGNED) by Uncle Pete and Louise

1st Edition . Soft cover. Good/No Jacket. Blind uncle Pete and niece (?) Louise with their WAAM (Newark) radio performing ditties of melancholy, unrequited love, misery, death, grief, sorrow, poverty and a few humorous songs (often 6-8 stanzas) of wholly forgotten songs. Text and biographies in rear of the two softcover folios; signed in both (assuming Louise), also signed by Dorothy van Doren, 1930s-40s novelist and editor of the Nation on top of the front paper covers. Sample titles include: A mother's Plea, the Mormon cowboy, the dying girl's message, the poor married man, picture from life's other side, the grand round-up, I'll wear a smile tonight, save my mother's picture from the sale, bury me out on the prairie, may I sleep in your barn tonight, mister?, bury me neath the willow, the little rosewood casket, put my little shoes away, and only a tramp. Chorus lyrics: He was some mother's darling, some mother's son. Yes once he was pure and once he was young; some mother rocked him in a cradle to sleep, now he's only a tramp found dead in the street. How awful! Key of D. Some dampstaining to volume one but no affect to material, 31pps each. Someone could make a musical living just singing these songs before a whiney, tear-producing audience. What does it say about rural America of the 1900s? Sold together, cover title mistaken? Hardly friendly. Photos of the pair and others on WAAM shown. Rare.