1627. AMERICAN MUSIC Great lot of eight signed books, all related to American music and songwriting: first edition copy of Without Rhyme or Reason, by L. Wolfe Gilbert, Vantage Press, New York: 1956, with a lengthy inscription and signature on the front endpage by the author; the autobiography Gay Nineties Troubador, by Joe Howard, Passantino Publishing, New York: 1956, signed by the author on the front endpage; The Importance of Music, by Sigmund Spaeth, Fleet Publishing Corp., New York: 1963, signed and inscribed on the front endpage; Read `em and Weep, by Sigmund Spaeth, Arco Publishing Co., New York: 1945, signed and inscribed by the author on the half-title page; First Nights and First Editions, by Harry B. Smith, Little Brown and Company, Boston: 1931, signed and inscribed on front endpage; Popular Music, Vol. 2, edited by Nat Shapiro, Adrian Press, 1965, first edition with dustcover, signed and inscribed on the front endpage; Life Doubles in Brass, by William A. Dillon, Cayuga Press, 1944, signed front endpage; and A Short History of Music in America, by John Tasker Howard and George Kent Bellows, Thomas Y. Crowell and Co., New York, 1957, signed and inscribed by Howard on front endpage. All books are from the personal collection of Sylvia Rosenberg of ASCAP and are in good to very good condition. $200-250