6.5" x 9.5", 280 page hardcover with dustjacket titled THE ORPHAN'S NINE COMMANDMENTS by William Roger Holman/ TCU Press, ISBN # 978-0-87565-355-6, Author's Design Copy 28 of 75 Special Copies with bookplate on the front cover, copyright 2007/ When Roger Bechan was six, his mother packed his suitcase and took him to the Oklahoma Society for the Friendless. He never saw her again. No wonder he and his orphan friends omit the tenth commandment—to "honor your father and mother." His long journey through three orphanages and several foster homes is recalled with surprising humor and insight. As a teenager, the boy finds a home with a supportive couple in a small Oklahoma oil town. Roger Bechan becomes William Holman, who obtains degrees from two universities, marries and raises three sons, and becomes the youngest director of the San Francisco Public Library and an award-winning book designer. Late in life, he discovers the identity of his father and a new family. The book is an unsentimental look at Bechan’s life in the child welfare system of Depression-era Oklahoma.

The book is complete and in FINE condition with some overall wear mainly to the dustjacket which has some small edge tears. On the front free endpaper is flat signed, "William R. Holman - Roger Bechan 1/15/12".