Mah Name Is Lyndon — Harvey Einbinder

Full Title: Mah Name Is Lyndon: A Play
Harvey Einbinder
Lady Bird Press · New York · 1968
First Edition · First Printing · Signed

The Book:
The First Edition · First Printing of Harvey Einbinder’s independently published antiwar satire Mah Name Is Lyndon, issued in February 1968 while Lyndon B. Johnson was still president and the political crisis surrounding the Vietnam War remained unresolved. The three-act play uses caricature, dialogue, songs, and political parody to attack the widening distance between Johnson’s rhetoric of peace and the continuing war. Its cast brings Johnson together with Hubert Humphrey, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., senators, generals, students, protesters, and administration officials. 89 pp. Original illustrated wrappers by Florence Safadi retain the original 95¢ price. This copy is signed by Harvey Einbinder on the title page.

Condition:
Very Good+. Original cream/yellow pictorial wrappers remain bright and attractive, with light toning, minor rubbing, faint creasing, and modest wear to the extremities. Binding remains square and sound; interior is notably clean and fresh. Small penciled price notation to the title page and faint erased or partially erased pencil marking to the copyright page. Einbinder’s signature remains clear on the title page. No restoration documented.

Story Of The Book

Harvey Einbinder published his attack on Lyndon Johnson before anyone knew how Johnson’s presidency would end.

In February 1968, Vietnam was consuming the country and Johnson was still the man responsible for fighting the war. Einbinder responded with Mah Name Is Lyndon—a three-act political satire that turned the administration into theater.

Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., senators, generals, students, and protesters collide through dialogue, caricature, parody, and songs. Einbinder even imagined a film within the play called “The Peacemaker,” contrasting Johnson’s language of peace with the war continuing under his command.

Then history overtook the satire.

On March 31, 1968, barely a month after the book’s stated first printing, Johnson shocked the country by announcing that he would not seek another term as president. By April 9, a contemporary review was already confronting how dramatically events had changed the political circumstances surrounding Einbinder’s attack.

This first printing preserves the argument before anyone knew how the story would end—and this copy is signed by the man making it.

Why It’s In The Collection

Mah Name Is Lyndon belongs in Consigned to Darkness because dissent is different when the person you are attacking still holds the power you are attacking him for.

Einbinder was not writing a retrospective judgment on Vietnam or a defeated presidency. He independently published a theatrical attack on a sitting president while that president still commanded the war.

The physical book reinforces that outsider character. Lady Bird Press sold the paperback for 95¢ and advertised copies directly to readers from a post-office box, including a discount for orders of ten or more.

Its importance is not that Einbinder predicted what happened next. It is almost the opposite.

He published before he knew what happened next.

Collection Categories: Publication-Event Object · Signed · Free Expression · Political Dissent · Anti-Authoritarianism · Political Movements · Political History · War & Conflict · Drama · Literature

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Authentication Evidence

• Title page identifies the work as Mah Name Is Lyndon: A Play by Harvey Einbinder.

• Title page identifies Lady Bird Press · New York as publisher.

• Harvey Einbinder’s handwritten signature appears directly beneath his printed author name on the title page.

• Signature is handwritten and visually distinct from the surrounding printed typography, establishing this copy as author-signed.

• Title page credits Florence Safadi as illustrator.

• Copyright page states “Copyright © 1968 by Harvey Einbinder.”

• Copyright page explicitly states “First Printing, February 1968,” directly establishing first-printing status.

• Copyright page records Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-20361.

• Copyright page states “Manufactured in the United States of America.”

• Copyright notice directs performance and reproduction inquiries to Harvey Einbinder, care of Lady Bird Press, P.O. Box 320, Cathedral Station, New York, N.Y. 10025.

• Original publisher’s illustrated wrappers remain present.

• Front wrapper retains the original printed 95¢ cover price.

• Rear wrapper advertises copies directly from Lady Bird Press for $1.00, with a twenty-percent discount for orders of ten or more.

• Rear wrapper credits “Cover and Illustrations by Florence Safadi,” consistent with the title-page credit and illustrations throughout the volume.

• U.S. Copyright Office records identify Mah Name Is Lyndon as an 89-page, three-act play by Harvey Einbinder, published in New York by Lady Bird Press and registered April 1, 1968.

• The University of Virginia’s Sixties Project independently catalogs Mah Name Is Lyndon among Vietnam War drama as a 1968 Lady Bird Press publication.

• A contemporary April 9, 1968 Daily Iowan review identifies Mah Name Is Lyndon as a 1968 Lady Bird Press paperback priced at 95¢ and discusses its songs, political caricatures, antiwar position, and portrayal of Johnson, independently corroborating publication-period circulation.

• Independent antiquarian records catalog the 1968 Lady Bird Press softcover as the First Edition.

• U.S. Copyright Office records document the work’s original 1968 registration, and no earlier edition has been identified.

• The explicit “First Printing, February 1968” statement provides direct first-printing evidence.

• No evidence of later printing, facsimile manufacture, replacement wrappers, rebinding, or restoration is observed.

• Observable physical and bibliographic evidence supports identification as the 1968 First Edition · First Printing · Signed Copy.