Thomas Spees Carrington, Directions for Living and Sleeping in the Open Air. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 1913 9x6", 24pp., many photos. Original wrappers. Nice copy of a sweet little pamphlet about the benefits of sleeping outside, from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. $75
"The light that never fails", a slogan used by the company for decades and one that we see on the front cover of the pamphlet, was an actual light at the top of the tower, and was "one of a few broadly visible features of the New York City nighttime skyline until the mid-20th century".
"The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, colloquially known as the Met Life Tower, is a landmark skyscraper, built in 1909 and located on Madison Avenue near the intersection with East 23rd Street, across from Madison Square Park in Manhattan, New York City. Designed by the architectural firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons and built by the Hedden Construction Company, the tower is modeled after the Campanile in Venice, Italy. The tower was a later addition to the original 11-story, full-block Metropolitan Life Home Office building (the "East Wing"), which was completed in 1893 and was also designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons. Plans for the tower were first announced in June, 1905. In 1953-57, the original Home Office building was replaced with the current building, designed by D. Everett Waid. Then, between 1960 and 1964, the Tower itself was modernized by Lloyd Morgan and Eugene V. Meroni."
"The building figured prominently in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's advertising for many years, illustrated with a light beaming from the top of its spire and the slogan, "The Light That Never Fails." The reference was to a beacon at the top of the tower which flashed once at the quarter hour and the time of day at the hour. The beacon was one of a few broadly visible features of the New York City nighttime skyline until the mid-20th century."--Wikipedia
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