E-LIST #30
African-Americana: 19th and 20th Century

 $2,500

New York: Thomas Hamilton, 1863. First edition. 288 pp. Publisher's dark brown ribbed cloth, spine lettered in gilt, original yellow endpapers. A Good copy with significant chipping to head cloth, tear to spine edge with exposed area of back gutter, worn extremities, small stain to front board, back hinge starting, a little foxing but internally in nice shape, former owner details to front free endpaper. An unsophisticated, fragile survival.

An abolitionist African American history by ex-slave William Wells Brown (best-known for his 1853 novel Clotel), which begins with the author's memoir. Item #140938323

 $2,500

Boston: Fetridge and Company, 1854. 86 pp. + 12 pp. of ads. Bound in publisher's original wrappers with portrait of Anthony Burns on the front cover. Very Good. Lean to spine, uneven toning to wraps. Dust-soiled with early page corners curled and creased.

Born a slave in Virginia, Burns escaped and stowed away on a ship bound for Boston. His recapture, extradition and court case received national attention and led to overwhelming outcries of public support, protests and violence. His case was unsuccessfully defended by Richard Henry Dana, and in order to prevent another "Abolitionist" riot, federal troops were deployed to ensure his return to Virginia. Burns was eventually ransomed from slavery, with his freedom being bought by Boston sympathizers. He was educated at Oberlin College in Ohio, and became a preacher before moving to Canada.

A rare account of a pre-Civil War era fugitive slave case which enveloped the nation, and one of the most important cases regarding the enforcement of The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Item #140939283

 $3,500

[Boston]: The Massachusetts Colonization Society, 1857. First American edition. (Reprinted from the London edition of 1856.) Original saddlestitched wraps. 31, [1, note] pp. Very Good with small chip at head, light tidemark to upper left corner of margin, wraps a little soiled and edges slightly worn.

This pamphlet is a prominent African-American minister's commemoration of the founding of the state of Liberia. He began as an abolitionist lecturer whose sermons took on an increasingly pan-African tone. In 1853 he moved to Liberia and attempted to move the country towards Christianity and American-style democracy; he would be forced to return to the USA in 1873, where he was a pastor and activist until his death in 1898. While his earlier pan-Africanism found few adherents, his influence on W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Paul Laurence Dunbar would be profound. Item #140939299

 $800

New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855. First edition, first printing. Publisher's brown cloth binding stamped in blind, gilt stamping to spine. Very Good. Cloth worn through at extremities and lightly chipped at spine ends. Bookseller ticket to front paste down, previous owner details penciled to front free end paper. Front and rear inner hinges exposed. Pages show foxing, toning and age spots, end sheets browned. An important slave narrative, and the author's second autobiography. In much nicer shape than normally encountered, with gilt stamping to spine still relatively bright and legible, and rare as such. Item #140937883

 $3,500

Boston: Published at the Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. First edition, first printing. Publisher's original brown cloth binding stamped in blind, with titles in gilt on upper board. Good. Binding cocked and little tender. Cloth rubbed through at edges and lightly at rear joint, spine with shallow chipping at ends and a cloth repair at the crown. Endsheets creased and with previous owner notations in pencil, some erased. Pages toned, sporadically foxed and soiled, with some corners creased. The first printing of the important slave narrative and treatise on abolition, scarce in the original cloth. Item #140939071

$12,000

Rochester, NY: Press of C. W. Hebard, 1859. 23 pp. Bound in publisher's original grey printed wraps. Near Fine, with light wear and toning to wraps.

Originally a Quaker group, the 1859 board members included abolitionists and Women's Rights activists such as Frederick Douglass, who served on the Business Committee, Amy Post and Lucy N. Colman. The meeting, at which Douglass delivered a well received speech, lasted three days, drawing large crowds each day. While Spiritualism was discussed, it was not the main topic, with discussions focusing on a number of social reforms including abolition, temperance, women's rights, education reform and an end to sectarianism. Item #140939296

 $2,500

San Francisco: Women's Co-operative Printing Office, 1881.

First Edition. 72 pp. (but several pages lacking or mutilated). Original gilt-lettered cloth. Fair. Cloth well-worn and a little frayed, text block loose within the binding, tears to a few pages, some soiling to pages and staining to lower margins. This copy lacking the front free endpapers as well as pp. 15-16 and 29-30; closed horizontal tear in p. 21, pp. 23-24 with 3-line horizontal strip cut out, pp. 27-28 with top 5 lines cut out, pp. 57-58 with 2-line strip cut out.

The second published book authored by an African American solely devoted to cookery. Preceded only by the extremely rare A Domestic Cook Book by Mrs. Malinda Russell in 1866. Author of The Jemima Code Toni Tipton-Martin wrote of this book on her blog:

A former slave named Abby Fisher also established a reputation for excellence in cookery and business along the shores of the Pacific, but she did something extraordinary for the time: She published a cookbook to prove it. [...] Although unschooled, Fisher operated a pickles and preserves manufacturing business with her husband, Alexander in San Francisco. She won awards and medals at various fairs in California. And in 1881 she released What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, a collection of more than 150 recipes – 'a book of my knowledge, based on an experience of upwards of 35 years in the art of cooking.'

One of the rarest American cookbooks, as many copies were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires. Tipton-Martin, p. 21; Bitting, p. 158; Culinary America, 29. Item #140938487

$7,000

Tuskeegee, Alabama / Charleston, South Carolina: Tuskeegee Institute / Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., 1897. First edition. Bound in publisher's yellow beige cloth over beveled boards, decorated in green and lettered in gilt, with all page edges colored red; introductory written by Booker T. Washington and photographic portrait of Fordham's home inserted at front. Near Fine with light soiling and some bleeding from red page edges onto cloth. Fordham was an African American poet and educator, who ran a school for African American children during the civil war. She later taught for the American Missionary Association, an abolitionist group in Albany, New York. Not much else is known about her personal life beyond what can be extracted from her poetry.

Fordham's poems are written in a style similar to those of contemporary white female poets, with tones and themes touching on motherhood, moral virtues, sentimentality, death, patriotism and Christianity. Fordham's poems are preceded by a one-page introduction by Booker T. Washington, in which he enthusiastically encourages African Americans to take up poetry, and endorses the book, believing it will "do its part to awaken the Muse of Poetry which I am sure slumbers in the very many Sons and Daughters of the Race of which the author of this work is a representative." Scarce. Item #140939280

$3,500

Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1858. First edition. xii, 212 pp. Publisher's brown cloth expertly rebacked with replaced endpapers. About Very Good with some rubbing and fraying to cloth along edges, exposed boards along bottom edge, moderate foxing and a little staining to text. The African-American ex-slave minister's second memoir, with an intro by Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Henson's first memoir reputedly inspired the famous character of Uncle Tom. Item #180626013

 $450

Washington: Cornelius Wendell, Printer, 1857.

First edition. 239 pp. Original pale blue wraps over string binding. Very Good with fragile front and rear wraps present, rear wrap detached, name written on front wrap, chipping along edges of wraps, wear to bottom corner of prelims, offsetting to contents.

An uncommon document of a landmark decision in American history, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which reversed an earlier decision in a lower court and held that African Americans could not be legally considered citizens. The Supreme Court's decision would have immense ramifications for years to come. Item #140938532

 $1,600

Lockport, NY: Ward and Cobb, 1896. First edition. [vii]-xxx, [31]-485, x, with folding map at front. Bound in publisher's green cloth stamped in gilt. Near Fine, with light rubbing to cloth at extremities, inner front hinge exposed though binding remains firm. Slight chipping to edges of front free endpaper and following blank.

Ouverture was the French general best known for leading the Haitian Revolution, who's military acumen saved the gains of the first black insurrection in November, 1791, helping transform the slave insurrection into a revolutionary movement. His achievements set the grounds for the black's army victory and for Jean-Jacques Dessalines to declare Haiti a sovereign state in 1804. Authored by Charles W. Mossell, a missionary of the African Methodist Episcopal Church who spent time in Haiti. Item #140939085

 $1,200

New York: Dix & Edwards, 1856. First edition. Bound in publisher's brown ribbed cloth decorated in blind and lettered in gilt on the spine. Near Fine, with dulling to gilt titles, shallow chipping at head of spine. Several small stains to top edge of textblock. Small corner missing from front free end paper. A nice and sharp copy of a book which usually turns up much worse for wear. Olmsted was interested in the slave economy and was commissioned by The New York Daily Times (currently The New York Times) to travel in the American South and gather extensive research. His dispatches, vivid first-person accounts of the antebellum South, were collected into three volumes, this being the first. Item #140939282

$650

Chicago: Laird & Lee Publishers, 1887. 4 pp. ads, 152, 6 ads. First edition. Bound in publisher's green cloth stamped in black and gold. Very Good with light wear and soiling to covers, toning to pages.

A racist and misogynistic detective story set in New Orleans involving stolen identity, love, murder and revenge. Part of the Pinkerton Detective Series. Kaser 380. Item #140939281

$450

Boston & New York: Munroe and Francis; Charles S. Francis, 1827. First edition. xiv, [15]-180 pp. Slightly later linen backing over contemporary, perhaps original brown paper-covered pasteboard, paper spine label. Likely original endpapers. All edges rough-trimmed.

Very Good condition overall for a working copy of a cookbook from this era. Contains penciled tick marks and dog-ears that suggest it was used by a member of a household staff who denoted useful passages such as instructions for "Waiting on Dinner," a recipe "To Recover a Person from Intoxication," and a way "To Know Whether a Bed is Damp or Not, When Traveling." Dampstain to boards that extends to endpapers, rear flyleaf, and final two pages of text; associated foxing. Boards rubbed with offsetting along backstrip; well-worn edges and rounded, exposed tips; back board slightly creased. Spine slightly cocked. Internal hinge repairs evident. General toning but remarkably little foxing and thumbsoiling throughout. Second gathering loosening; pages 23-30, 47-54, 59-66, 119-126 (two pairs of conjunct leaves each) detached and laid in; small marginal hole at page 57-8, not affecting text; two other short marginal tears. From the collection of Marcus Crahan with his bookplate on front paste down; ticket of Corner Book Shop beneath that.

A true historical milestone: the first commercially published book in the United States written by an African American. It is also the first cookbook by an African American, although it serves more as a guide to household management than a cookbook per se, as the author was a head butler, not a chef. The 105 recipes herein encompass cookery as well as remedies and cleaning products. The book was a commercial success, going through three editions, and was widely used throughout New England upper-class homes. Later in life Roberts became a prominent Boston-area abolitionist, contributing to William Lloyd Garrison's paper The Liberator. [Tipton-Martin The Jemima Code pp. 14-16]. Item #140938048

 $22,000

Boston and Cleveland: John P. Jewett & Co., 1852. Two volumes. First edition, first printing; Hobart and Robbins listed on both copyright pages, title pages lack printing statement as called for. Finely bound in contemporary marbled paper covered boards over black leather spine with raised bands and gilt tooling. Very Good with bindings rubbed, bumping to edge of Volume I affecting rear pages. Previous owner details to front free endpapers. Pages toned, occasionally stained or with corners creased. A lovely set in a nice contemporary binding. BAL 19343. Item #140938460

 $3,500

Boston: George W. Light, 1834. First edition. 36 (missing one textual leaf) pp. with frontispiece and tissue guard. Apparent original blue cloth underneath plain brown cloth sewn at the spine and affixed under paste downs, small remnant of paper spine label. A Fair copy missing a single textual leaf (pages 29-30), with aforementioned cloth covering over original cloth, bookplate of Sabbath School of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Nantucket, Mass. Frontis and another leaf (pp. 31-32) detached and chipped, the latter missing a little less than a quarter of its original dimensions. Diagonal tears through pp. 11-14. Original endpapers apparently used as paste downs. Foxing, occasional light soiling and staining. Scarce. One of two biographies of the first published female African-American poet, both published by the same publisher in 1834. Contains excerpts of Wheatley's poems as well as a brief early-19th century view of her short life. Item #140937776

 $5,200

New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1837. First edition. 108pp. Publisher's cloth spine and printed paper boards. Very Good overall with strip of wear along bottom edge of front cover, spine cloth worn and split but binding holding, boards rubbed and a bit soiled, ffep clipped along top edge, pages 55-58 dampstained. A legal argument against slavery by a radical New Haven abolitionist clergyman and Underground Railroad aider. Few copies exist of the first edition. Item #180102009

 $1,200

London and New York: Ernest Nister & E.P. Dutton and Company, 1896. First edition. Pictorial boards backed in white cloth. Very Good with light staining and soiling to boards, slight crease to both boards as well, contents clean and bright. Gift inscription to front free endpaper in easily-erasable light pencil, dated 1911.

The famous African-American educator, author, speaker, and leader's rare first book, a small collection of inspirational quotes with multicolor illuminated-manuscript-style chromolithographs, printed in Bavaria, Germany. Item #140938634

 $2,000

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1888. First edition, first printing. 353 pp. + 12 [ads]. Bound in publisher's ochre cloth stamped in black and brown. Very Good with edge wear, light rubbing to pictorial stamping on front cover, light toning to spine cloth, light staining to rear cover. Slight exposure to front and rear inner hinge. Pencil notations to verso of rear free endpaper.

A history of African American troops in the Civil War, written by an African American author. Item #140939298

 $750

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953. First edition. Bound in publisher's brown cloth stamped in gilt on spine and upper board. Near Fine with erased name at front free endpaper. In a Very Good unclipped edge-worn and spine-faded dust jacket, which has been trimmed along the bottom edge. Item #140938746

$1,400

New York: The Dial Press, 1979. First edition. Signed by James Baldwin on dedication page, inscribed to bookseller Brainerd Philipson, "Keep the faith." [x], 597 pp. Original maroon cloth lettered in gilt. Remainder spray to bottom edge, else Near Fine with a little foxing to top edge, in Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with light curling and edge wear.

A signed copy of the author's final novel, dealing with racism and homophobia. Item #140939141

$650

Cleveland: The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, Inc., 1978.

A program for the Cleveland-based African American organization, signed by James Baldwin on his biography at p. 3, inscribed to"To Ruth, God Bless, James Baldwin." 16 pp. Stapled wraps. Very Good.

Includes three booklets from Karamu, the Cleveland-based African American theater that once performed Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie, ranging from 1978-1979. Item #140939301

 $300

Boston: Beacon Press, 1959. Signed by James Baldwin on title page in blue ink. 175 pp. Wraps. Second printing of the First Beacon Press paperback edition. Good+ with spine slightly cocked and creased with a faint dampstain, edges a little foxed and rubbed, endpapers lightly foxed as well.

The African-American expatriate author's first nonfiction book, an acclaimed collection of essays on race and identity. Item #140937793

 $600

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1899. 229 pp. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's illustrated brown cloth with titles in gilt. Near Fine. Light rubbing to cloth at edges, darkening to spine and toning to pages. A sharp copy. Item #140939288

 $850

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1900. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's pale green cloth, pictorially stamped in dark green and silver, with titles in gilt on spine. Fine, with light rubbing at corners and spine ends, pages lightly tone.

A fantastic copy of the author's first novel, set shortly after the Civil War, in which a woman of mixed white and black ancestry follows her brother who migrated to a new city where he is living as a white man. Item #140939289

 $2,000

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1901.

First edition. vi, 329 [1] pp. Original orangish yellow cloth lettered in black, decorated in silver. Very Good with a slightly toned spine, lightly corner-bumped and rubbed with a little foxing to edges and endpapers, rear endpaper bottom corner irregularly torn off.

A nice copy of the acclaimed novel based on the Wilmington Massacre of 1898, a race riot/ coup against the North Carolina city's African-American population. Item #180904004

 $550

New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1967. First edition. Review copy with publisher's slip laid in. Signed by author diagonally on front free endpaper. [viii], 248 pp. Gray cloth with reddish orange spine lettering. Near Fine with slight curve to back board, small spot on top edge slightly abraided, in Near Fine unclipped dust jacket, a little toned with age, light soil to rear panel. Nice shape overall.

Cooper was an African American author who chronicled the seedy side of life, wrestled with drug addiction, and died in penniless obscurity. The Farm chronicles the struggles of a black inmate at the United States Narcotic Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. This facility, as documentary The Narcotic Farm put it, "was a humane hospital set on 1,000 acres of farmland where drug addicts could recover from their habits. On the other hand, it was an imposing federal prison built to incarcerate convicted addicts." It was also where a battery of infamous medical experiments took place. In a 2007 Guardian review of the book Tony O'Neill writes of Cooper's novel:

The Farm was written in 1966, while Cooper was serving time for a drug offence. Radically different in both style and tone from his earlier work, it is the work of a man who knows he has a final chance to write something GREAT. After the critical success of The Scene, and the humiliation of his later works being relegated to pulp outfit Regency House, the incarcerated 32-year-old played every card he had. In The Farm, Cooper's language is flowing and experimental: he creates words, plays with syntax, and everything moves in an irresistible rhythm.

His final novel. Scarce signed, as are all of the author's books. Item #140938702

 $800

London: Elkin Mathews and Marrot Limited, 1928. 382 pp. + 2 [ads]. First British edition, first printing; precedes the first American edition, which was published the following year. Bound in publisher's maroon cloth textured in blind, with titles stamped in red; lacking the dust jacket. Near Fine, with light sunning to spine and fore edge of front cover. Foxing to textblock edge, sporadically affecting pages. Previous owner bookplate to front pastedown. Fauset was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Item #140939290

$4,500

New York: Random House, 1935. Limited edition. Copy 63 of only 250 signed by composer George Gershwin, lyricist Ira Gershwin, author of the original novel and the play itself Dubose Heyward, and director Rouben Mamoulian. [xii], 559, [3] pp. Publisher's full red morocco, titles blindstamped on spine, lacking labels on front and spine (as is common) as well as the elusive slipcase. An unsophisticated copy with worn head and tail, rubbing along edges, wear spot to back cover, small piece of tape on spine, hinges over-opened, very slight wave along top edge of text at front, internally clean, and overall Very Good.

A deluxe signed edition of the classic music of the popular English-language opera with all African American characters, featuring oft-covered songs like "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "I Love You, Porgy." Item #140939255

 $6,000

Boston: The Cornhill Company, 1920. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's brown paper covered boards over black cloth spine, stamped in gilt. Near Fine. Spine cloth faded with titles on spine mostly illegible. Light soiling. Front inner hinge repaired, small stray mark to front free endpaper. Light offsetting to rear blank sheets from four-leaf clover laid in.

Rachel is generally accepted as the first published and produced play by an African American woman; it originally ran in 1916 at Myrtill Miner Normal School in Washington, D.C. The playwright was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Item #140939202

$2,000

New York: Random House, 1959. First edition. [xiv], 142 pp. Original tan half cloth with paper-covered boards and mounted photo of actor Sidney Poitier. Near Fine in correct unclipped dust jacket ($2.95) with slight chipping at head, rubbing, and a little toning to spine panel, Very Good+. An attractive copy of the classic play. Item #140939244

 $700

Boston: The Colored Co-Operative Publishing Company, 1900. First edition. 402 pp. Red cloth decorated in pink, yellow and black, lettered in gilt on spine. A Very Good+ copy with very slight lean, a little bit of fraying to foot, back board with a few small stains, rear hinge split, a little dust soiling to edges, p. 16 a little scuffed and stained. Lettering strong, cloth generally very clean and contents bright.

A romantic novel of black life from the Revolutionary era to post-Reconstruction, written by an African-American woman from New England and published by a black publishing house. An unsophisticated copy, scarce and desirable thus, of an important activist novel spotlighting postbellum racism and moral uplift in the manner of W.E.B. Du Bois. Item #180426006

 $6,500

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1957. First edition. [vi], 175, [1] pp. Original gray cloth backstrip and red paper-covered boards, spine lettered in black and red. Near Fine with light wear, small bookplate remnant to front free endpaper faint tidemark to rear paste down. In Very Good unclipped dust jacket with dampstaining visible on back panel, otherwise only on verso, spine sunned.

A hard-boiled Edgar-winning crime novel that features a protagonist who has been called "the first credible African-American private eye," Toussaint Moore. Rare in hardcover, especially with jacket. Item #140938444

$2,500

New York: Random House, 1959.

First edition. Inscribed by author to former owner on front free endpaper in the year of publication. [viii], 310 [1] pp. Original cloth and paper-covered boards, red topstain. Small abraded edge to front free endpaper, else Fine in Very Good+ Cosgrove-designed pictorial dust jacket with small triangular chip to foot, short tears near head and upper corner of back panel. A lovely signed first edition of the author's first book, an account of Barbadian immigrant life in Brooklyn. Item #140938557

 $650

Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1969.

First edition. Signed by James Alan McPherson on upper corner of front free endpaper. Late University of Virginia professor David Levin's copy with his name written underneath author signature; he and author were colleagues in the UV English Department. [x], 275 pp. Original cloth-backed boards, spine lettered in gilt. Near Fine with a small faint stain to fore edge, a little dust-soiling to edges, in Very Good unclipped dust jacket with small chips at head and tail, rubbed. A signed association copy of the first book by the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize. Item #140938467

$600

New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. First edition. Signed by Toni Morrison on the front free endpaper and inscribed to a former owner. Good. Lean and creases to spine, boards toned at edges. Several small stains and dog-ears to pages. In a Good price-clipped dust jacket, toned, with several edge-tears and creases to flaps. The author's first book, signed and warmly inscribed to a friend and colleague. Item #140938203

 $3,800

Philadelphia: The A.M.E. Book Concern, 1922. 125 pp. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's original red cloth stamped in gilt on the upper board. Very Good. Cloth rubbed and soiled. Pages toned, with a faint tidemark to the bottom of the early and final pages. A scarce collection of short stories by the author, orator and educator.

Born the son of freed slaves, Pickens earned bachelor degrees from Talladega College and eventually from Yale University at the behest of Booker T. Washington. He was an active member of the NAACP, and was considered for the position of field secretary, which was instead given to James Weldon Johnson. Item #140939278

$1,200

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940. First edition. Bound in publisher's dark blue cloth with titles blocked in red and off-white. Pages toned, previous owner name to front paste down and foxing to endsheets, still Fine. In a Very Good unclipped first issue dust jacket a bit edge-worn and soiled.

An African-American novel set in Chicago and centered around the main character Bigger Thomas, of whom James Baldwin once wrote, "No American Negro exists who does not have his private Bigger Thomas living in his skull." Item #140938374

 $3,500

New York: Exposition Press, 1949. 54 pp. First edition. Bound in publisher's red cloth binding with titles in gilt. Very Good with cloth faded at spine, lightly worn. Pages toned. The African American author's first and only book of poetry. Item #140939277

$300





 

San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1958. First edition, first printing. Hand-sewn salmon wrappers printed illustrated with runic characters by Robert Duncan. Wraps lightly soiled and with light staining to rear cover, top corner lightly bent. Item #161201005

$200

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1949. First edition. Signed by Gwendolyn Brooks on half title, inscribed to former owners "with affectionate admiration." x, 60 pp. Black cloth with gilt spine lettering. Former owner's inscription on verso of half title, else Fine in Very Good dust jacket with chip to top of back panel, pencil notations and small tidemark to front flap, price-clipped, a few small tears along folds and at foot.

In 1950 Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for this book, making her the very first African American person to win the award. Item #140939305

$2,000

Louisville, KY: The Bradley & Gilbert Co., 1909. 64 pp. First edition.Good, with light wear to cloth at edges, and dampstaining visible in raking light. Previous owner address stamp and evidence of bookplate removal to front free end paper. Black bleeding to bottom of page corners, and rear page corners are creased and with associated damaged. Binding tender.

A scarce book of poems by poet, writer, playwright and prominent educator Joseph Seamon Cotter (1861-1949). He was a community leader in Louisville, KY, and one of the first African American playwrights to be published. Item #140939279

 $350

Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1986. First edition. Signed by poet on half title, inscribed to former owner and dated June 3, 1989. 80 pp. Navy cloth with gilt lettering. Fine in second state dust jacket with Pulitzer mention, light rubbing, else Fine. Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; Dove was the second African-American person to win. Item #140938827

 $400

Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1980. First edition, cloth issue. Signed by the author underneath her name on the title page, and then warmly inscribed to former owners and again signed, dated 22 Dec. 81, Tampa. 71, [1] pp. Original pale yellow cloth with black spine lettering. A few penciled checkmarks in margins next to poem titles and a single stanza circled in pencil, all easily erasable, else Fine. In sunned unclipped dust jacket with light edge wear. The rare cloth issue of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet's first book. Item #140938826

 $700

New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1901. First edition. Signed by Paul Laurence Dunbar on the front free endpaper. Bound in publisher's green cloth with elaborate stamping to upper board and spine; with title page in BAL State A, and a deposit copy thus; lacking the dust jacket, though remnants of the front panel remain laid in. Near Fine, with slight tarnishing to gilt on front cover, light rubbing to tips. Offsetting to endsheets. A beautiful copy. With photographs by the Hampton Institute Camera Club, and decorations by Margaret Armstrong. Item #140938384

 $4,800

New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1905. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's brown cloth stamped in black, grey red and gilt, with photographic onlay to front cover; top edges gilt. Near Fine with light rubbing at tips, light rubbing to black stamping on spine. Previous owner details in pencil to front free end paper, and short tear to bottom of halt-title page. A beautiful copy. Item #140937950

$300

New York: Self Published, 1931. 37 pp. First edition. Bound in publisher's gray faux-suede wraps with titles in black. Very Good. Sear to wraps, with light scrapes to front cover and faint creases. Two tiny holes to author's portrait at frontis.

A collection of poems by an early 20th-century African American poet, which was revised and republished as a Memorial Edition years later in 1953. Copies of the original first edition are scarce. Item #140939274

 $1,250

San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1959. First edition. Single sheet of white wove paper folded in sixths. Near Fine with a very faint small stain on front cover. Very nice shape overall. The African-American Beat poet's first and most famous book, a folded broadside of nine poems full of beatnik slang, absurd humor, and braggadocio. Item #170606004

 $275

New York: Harmony Books, 1973. First edition. Bound in publisher's original pictorial wraps. Very Good, with wraps lightly rubbed, lightly edge worn and with a light reading crease to the front cover.

A narrative poetry book adapted from Lightnin' Rod's album of the same title, telling the story of two fictional hustlers, Sport and Spoon. The album was a major influence on hip hop and helped add a sociopolitical aspect to black music. Item #140939293

 $550

San Lorenzo: Shameless Hussy Press, 1975. First edition. Warmly inscribed by Shange to former owner on title page, dated 1988. Unpaginated. Original stapled red wraps with first state misspelling of author's name, original price of .95 on front cover. A Near Fine copy with slightly toned wraps, former owner's name written on inside of front wrap.

Includes drawings by Wopo Holup not in later printings. The Tony-Award-nominated series of poetic monologues to be read along music and dancing (choreopoems), rare in its first printing by a small feminist press two years before the hardcover trade edition. Item #140938196

 $500

Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1947. 77 pp. First edition. Signed by Idabell Yeiser on the title page. Bound in publisher's red pebbled cloth binding, ruled in blind with titles in gilt. Pages toned, else Fine, in a Near Fine dust jacket with light edge wear and toning to the spine and edges.

A scarce book of poems by the African American woman poet and writer, who was part of the New Negro Movement in Philadelphia. Uncommon in the dust jacket. Item #140939275

$300

Fort Scott, Kansas: Fort Scott Sorghum Syrup Company, 1914. 26 pp. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's stapled pictorial wraps. Very Good or better with light soiling and wear to wraps. Several page corners creased.

When sugar, flour, bacon and oil were scarce or expensive, African American customs of using sorghum as an inexpensive sugar substitute were promoted. Here, a Kansas sorghum company issued a promotional cook book, featuring nearly 100 recipes for cakes, breads, meats, breakfast foods and sweets, all to be made using Fort Scott sorghum syrup. According to the text, "Mary," who appears on the cover, was employed in the family of the company's manager. Scarce. Item #140939294

 $450

Hampton, VA: Press of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, 1921. 299 pp. First edition. Bound in publisher's ochre cloth stamped in black. Near Fine with light smudging to black stamping on front cover, foxing to endsheets and toning to page; a very sharp copy. In a Good dust jacket, which is tattered and has an internal chip near the base of the spine. Very scarce, especially with the jacket.

A textbook designed to educate African American college students in the fundamentals of cooking and housekeeping while they were learning basic academic skills, reflecting the educational mission and uplift goals at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural School. Notable for being the first African American cookbook to include a table of contents. Item #140939295

$1,250

New York: Award Books, 1970. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's printed wraps. Very Good with foxing and light soiling to wraps, thick remainder mark to top edge. Pages toned, one page creased at fore-edge, causing a slight upward curl to the front cover.

Part cook book and part life-style book, featuring recipes, anecdotes and culinary history written by a African-American Louisiana native, who cooked his was across the the South. As exclaimed on the rear cover, "Soul is everything that happens in the black experience. Soul food is part of that experience. It's unique, succulent, stick-to-the-ribs style of cooking that was created by slaves in the Old South--culinary genius sparked by necessity." Item #140938046

 $150

San Diego: Morrow Publications, 1966. 187 pp. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's white wraps printed in black with red and blue barber pole stripes near spine. Very Good. Wraps creased at spine, worn at extremities, toned and lightly soiled, previous owner name on title page.

A very thorough guide with many photo-illustrations covering history, sanitation, philosophy of customer service, tools, men's and women's hair, kinky, curly and wavy hair, razor lines, mustaches, beards, styles and more. The author was born in Alabama, and moved to San Diego in 1956 to pursue his career there, where he completed his training, opened two barber shops and went to college where he majored in Christian education. Scarce. Item #140939291

 $450

Atlanta, GA: A. B. Caldwell Publishing Co., 1922. 126 pp. First edition. Bound in publisher's red cloth, lettered in black. Staples visible at front and rear inner hinges. Former owner notation to front paste down, crease and wear to front free end paper. Hinge at final page of text is cracked open, hanging on by a single thread.

Jared Maurice Arter was a former slave turned Christian missionary, writer and academic. An autobiography that also features a sketch of his hometown of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, as well as sermons. Item #140939273

$1,500

Washington, D.C. Will W. Allen, 1921. 80 pp. First edition. Bound in publisher's original brown paper covered boards with titles in black, Fair, missing bottom corners of covers, affecting some pages as well. Pages toned, with tidemarks to early pages. The first blank and portrait are cracked at the gutter and nearly separated from the binding.

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) was an African American almanac writer, who's knowledge of astronomy helped him author a commercially successful series of almanacs. Banneker corresponded with Thomas Jefferson on racial equality and slavery, and abolitionists promoted and praised Banneker's work. Item #140939276

 $450

New York: David McKay, 1955. First edition. Signed by Daisy Bates on front free endpaper, and beneath that inscribed by Kivie Kaplan, president of the NAACP. [xvii], 234 pp. Original red cloth with black spine lettering. Very Good+, small sticker shadow to ffep, ding in top of front board, in a Good price-clipped jacket with a triangular chip in the front panel, wear along top edge.

Bates was an Arkansas journalist and NAACP member who helped nine students enroll in the all-white Central High School in Little Rock. Item #140938446

 $400

Archive of Correspondence and Material Relating to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Sent to or Relating to A. L. Thomas, an African American Railroad Fireman Living in Macon, Georgia in the 1940s

[Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters]

A modest amount of material from and relating to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, ranging from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Includes typed correspondence, sign-up cards and material sent to or relating to Arthur Lee Thomas, who was an African American railroad fireman living in Macon, Georgia. Contents sound, with some staining, toning and general wear or soiling. Among the interesting contents are a bulletin informing and advising members to attend the National Conference of Colored Locomotive Firemen, as well as a program of events for the National Conference of the BSCP Provisional Committee to Organize Colored Locomotive Firemen, held in July [1944] in Washington D.C.

In 1935, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters became the first labor union lead by African Americans to receive a charter from the American Federation of Labor. The union's membership was predominately African American, and several leaders of the BSCP, including A. Philip Randolph whose name appears printed on union letterhead in this collection, would go on to become leaders in the Civil Rights movement. Item #140939304

 $650.00

Houston, TX: D. Armstrong Co., 1977. First edition. Signed by Barbara Charline Jordan on the front free endpaper.

Jordan was the first Southern African-American woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, and was the first woman to deliver the keynote speech at a Democratic National Convention. Fine, in a Near Fine dust jacket with minor shelf wear and a small sticker shadow on the front flap. Item #140939285

$450

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Signed by Cleaver on front free endpaper in ink, inscribed to former owner "at SSC" [probably the Socialist Scholar's Conference], "All Power to the People," dated October 2, 1968. Former owner's name written in red pencil above that. xv, 210, (1, Note About Author) pp. Original cloth lettered in white and green. Sixth printing of the first edition. Near Fine with faint tape stains on endpapers in Near Fine unclipped dust jacket.

A signed copy of the Black Panther Party leader's best-known work, a memoir and political manifesto first published by Ramparts magazine, then under the Ramparts book imprint of McGraw-Hill. Item #140937555

 $500

New York: Apollo Editions, 1970. Inscribed by Harold Cruse (1916-2005) to former owner on title page, signed and dated Dec. 26 2001. [vi], 594 pp. Wraps. A slightly better than Fair copy with former owner's underlining and notes in margins and inside cover, creased spine, worn wraps.

A very rare signed copy of the author's first book, first published in 1967, which has been called a foundational work in African American studies. It remains influential; for example, Cornel West has often stated that every time he writes he is "shadow boxing with Cruse." Item #140937903

 $200

New York: Masses & Mainstream, 1952.

First edition. Signed by W.E.B. Du Bois on the front free end paper. Near Fine with light fading to cloth at spine ends, pencil markings in text, several page corners dog-earred, in a Very Good dust jacket with rubbing, shallow chipping at the spine ends, a short split at the top of the front flap fold, two closed tears with associated creasing at the bottom of the rear panel with a mending tissue repair made from the blank verso. Signed by the author. Item #161124009

 $2,800

New York: American Music League, 1936. First edition. Signed by Lawrence Gellert and inscribed to a former owner on the title page. Publisher's brown faux-suede wraps lettered in black, in white dust jacket printed in black and red. Very Good with short tear to top edge of front cover, light corner wear, toning to pages. In a Good dust jacket, which is soiled and worn, with a chip at the head and one to the interior of the spine near the foot.

Lawrence Gellert was a Hungarian-born folk-lorist who collected a significant number of African American blues and spiritual field recordings. He was suspected by other contemporary folklorists of having fabricated his "Negro Songs of Protest," since his colleagues could find no parallels. Item #140939292

$750

New York: Fair Play for Cuba Committee, 1961-1962.

Four pieces of ephemera, all 8 1/2" x 11", consisting of:

1. A single-sided membership form (dated August 1961 in pencil) with a letter from Acting Executive Secretary Richard Gibson.

2. A single-sided solicitation for money for the FPCC dated Oct. 28, 1961 by Gibson with list of 12 FPCC committees in the United States and their addresses. The city of New Orleans is noticeably absent here; it would have to wait for the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, to found a chapter in 1963.

3. A double-sided document, one side a letter by Gibson to accompany the FPCC magazine The Minority of One, with a list of the group's literature at the bottom. The verso is a flyer, "Stop The Cold War Against Cuba" with the group's tagline at the bottom, "Hands Off Cuba!" This would headline Oswald's leaflets.

4. A ten page mimeographed stapled document, printed on rectos only, titled "Report of RICHARD GIBSON, Acting National Executive Secretary, to the First National Conference of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York City on July 1, 1961." It's a summary of the organization's goals, progress, and setbacks in its first year. Creasing from being folded in thirds. Only two copies of this report located in OCLC; not in the Richard Gibson papers at George Washington University.

A small, Very Good+ collection of uncommon ephemera of the ill-fated leftist, pro-Castro organization Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which was founded by two CBS journalists, Robert Taber and Richard Gibson. The latter was also a noteworthy African American expatriate in Paris in a small literary circle that included Richard Wright (author of Black Boy), James Baldwin (Giovanni's Room and Go Tell It on the Mountain), and Chester Himes (the Harlem Detective novels). Gibson would become the character "Bill Hart" in Wright's final, unpublished novel Island of Hallucinations, a turncoat who spies on his fellow black expatriates for intelligence agencies. A 2018 dump of formerly-classified American government files revealed that Gibson had indeed spied for the CIA, officially from 1965 to at least 1977, but quite possibly earlier during his tenure at the FPCC. The organization would cease to exist in 1964 after the eviction of its New York chapter and the negative publicity following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, when accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was revealed to have started his own chapter of the group in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. Item #140939140

 $500

[Mississippi]: [Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party], [1964]. Single-sheet photographic poster. 10 3/8" x 16 3/8". Very Fine condition: bright with no pinholes, bottom corners very slightly worn, two tiny tears to bottom edge with tape repairs to verso, some scuffing and finger soiling to verso. An uncommon example of the '60s civil rights struggle within the Democratic Party.

This poster was a production of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which was a splinter faction of the state's official Democratic Party that broke off due to its domination by segregationists. It was founded by civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, and Bob Moses, and Ella Baker in 1964. As shown in this poster, the MFDP ran alternate candidates for senate and congress, doing its best to replace the official Democratic Party delegation at the 1964 convention. When President Johnson offered a compromise between the two factions-- two seats for the MFDP-- the MFDP refused and withdrew from the convention, Fannie Lou Hamer stating in a speech, "We didn't come all this way for no two seats, 'cause all of us is tired." The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is often cited as one of the fruits of the MFDP's struggle; another was the beginning of the white South's turn to the Republican Party. Item #140939303

 $500

Hamburg, Germany: The International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, 1930. First edition. 40 pp. Original pink wraps, spine reinforced with tape. Good only with chips to edges of toned, brittle, and fragile wraps; small tear in front wrap near spine; tape reinforcement to spine; bottom corner of many pages dog-eared. Rare in the trade and uncommon institutionally, with an OCLC search showing twelve copies worldwide.

A survival from the first (and only) gathering of Communist International leaders of African descent from seven different countries in the US, Europe, Africa , and the Caribbean, held in Weimar Germany. This attempt at Communist, anti-colonial, Pan-Africanism included James W. Ford from the US, Jomo (Johnstone) Kenyatta of Kenya, and George Padmore of the UK. After the newly-established group, the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, was put on ice by Moscow the follow year, its journal became known as The Negro Worker, which ran until 1937. Item #140938730

 $500

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1936. First edition, first printing. Review copy with publisher's slip laid in. Bound in publisher's coarse ochre cloth stamped in red; lacking the dust jacket. Near Fine with slight fading and very faint stains to spine cloth. A fantastic copy. Features annotated songs and an oral biography of the iconic blues legend, transcribed by the folklorist father-and-son duo John and Alan Lomax. Item #140939307

 $550

1956. Eleven photographs, some original and some wire service, ranging in size from 4.5"x6" to 8"x10". Very Good with signs of use and age, several edge tears, press markings and notations on rear. Depicts Autherine Lucy and school integration at the University of Alabama, where she was the first African American student to attend, registering Februay 1, 1956.

In 1952, Lucy and a friend, Pollie Myers, were accepted into UA, though their admittance was rescinded when authorities discovered they were black. Backed by the NAACP, Lucy and Myers sued the university for discrimination in a court battle that lasted over three years before a federal court injunction ruled in their favor. Upon enrolling, Lucy was barred from the campus by mob violence, but vowed to return.

Includes three photos of mainly young white men with Confederate flags protesting of her enrollment, who, though according to one caption had just been tear-gassed by police, are boasting oddly gleeful expressions. The events of UA's desegregation ultimately lead to the resigning of the university president, Oliver Carmichael. Item #140939287

$350

Louisville, KY: The Globe Printing Company, 1908. First edition, first printing. Fine. Slight dulling to cloth at spine, faint touches of rubbing. Previous owner rubber stamp to front paste down. Light toning to pages. A very sharp and crisp copy.

A history of the 3d USCC, a Civil War regiment mostly composed of former slaves from Mississippi and Tennessee. Among their exploits was the courageous assault on a Confederate stockade at Big Black River near Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1864. Item #151212004

$2,500

Miami, FL: Miami Herald, 1968.Three 8" x 10" press photos depicting Charlene Mitchell smoking a cigarette. Very Good with some discoloration, oil crayon markings to two of the images, bottom margin partially missing from one image, stamps to verso.

Mitchell was the first African American woman to run for president of the United States, as the Communist Party candidate in 1968. Mitchell was part of the leadership of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, an organization which grew out of the struggle to free Angela Davis from a "racist frame-up." Item #140939286

 $150

[Detroit]: Negro Retail Store Employees Association / The Inner City Organizing Committee [ca. 1940-1960?]. Single sheet measuring 9-7/8" x 10, printed on recto only. Top edge rough cut, perhaps as issued or with blank margin partially missing. Moderately toned, and with a faint vertical crease down the center.

Beginning in the 1930s, the Don't Buy Where You Can't Work campaign sprung up in northern American cities, with black community members protesting against discriminatory hiring practices of targeted white-owned businesses. Such businesses would typically be picketed in order to increase job opportunities and harness the economic power of the community to affect change. This broadside appears to be boycotting three Sears locations in the Detroit area, which had "75% negro patronage, and less than 10% negro employees in lower paying jobs." Locally, this movement was supported by the Detroit Housewives' League, activist African American housewives who tirelessly worked to promote black-owned businesses and in turn, increase employment opportunities for black workers. Item #140939269

 $350

New York: Random House, 1960. First edition. Signed by Jackie Robinson in year of publication, and inscribed "best wishes." Additionally inscribed by co-author Carl T. Rowan, "I hope you are as proud of me as I am of you." Very Good, top corners bumped throughout. Inner hinge started at bottom. Pages toned. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with light rubbing, light foxing and light soiling. A lovely copy, inscribed by the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era. Item #140937487

 $3,500

Westport, CT. Lawrence Hill & Company, 1987. First edition, first printing. Publisher's red cloth with gilt spine lettering. Near Fine with slight rubbing at tips, toning to pages. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with a short closed tear to the top edge of the front panel, a small nick to the front spine fold near the foot, light rubbing, and light toning.

Shakur was active in the Black Liberation Army and briefly a Black Panther Party member. She was charged with the murder of a state trooper, though escaped prison and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum. First editions of her autobiography are scarce. Item #140938496

$3,500

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1949. First edition. vii, 215, [1, note about author] pp. Original scarlet cloth with black lettering, black topstain. Near Fine with light shelf wear, tiny tear in inner hinge at front, in About Very Good dust jacket with chipping along edges, closed tear in top of back panel. Rare in jacket.

Over a decade before John Howard Griffin dyed his skin to chronicle Southern racism in Black Like Me, Pulitzer-winning journalist Ray Sprigle disguised himself as an African-American and exposed the evils of segregation and racism in a 21-part nationally-syndicated series of stories "I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days," collected for the first time in this book. He did so with the backing of the NAACP. As a 2011 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece by Bill Steigerwald recalled Sprigle:

"Though he was a lifelong friend of the underdog, Sprigle was no softhearted liberal. He was no moralist, no precocious civil rights crusader, no longtime champion of the cause of the Negro, North or South. He was a staunch conservative Republican who hated FDR and the New Deal. All he had wanted his Southern investigation to do, he said later, was to see 'that justice was done to a group that is grossly oppressed.'"

Sprigle's story was also chronicled in the 2017 book by Steigerwald, 30 Days a Black Man. Item #140938753

 $500

New York: Avon, 1973. First edition. Signed by Louis Tackwood on the front free endpaper. 284, (4) pp. Illustrated wraps, red edges. Very Good+ with tiny chip to foot, front cover hinge a little overopened. Wraps printed slightly off-center. A rare signature as Tackwood quickly faded from the spotlight after this book was published and thereafter did not make public appearances.

One of the high spots of political cynicism in the Watergate era was this long out-of-print memoir by a former Los Angeles Police Department informant. He outlined a career of infiltrating and setting up the Black Panthers and other leftists as an agent provocateur, contradicting the rosier and more simplistic narratives of most other contemporary radical authors. The LAPD would eventually attempt to use Tackwood to testify against them as well, as is recounted in Mumia Abu Jamal's 2008 book We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party. Item #140938252

 $500

Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1907. Fourth edition. Inscribed by the author "With highest regards of Booker T. Washington / Tuskeegee Ala / Feb. 12. 1909." Bound in publisher's brick red cloth with titles stamped in gilt. Very Good or better, with fading to spine, light rubbing at tips, and small scuff to front cover. Pages lightly toned. A lovely copy, lacking the dust wrapper. Item #140937880

 $1,500

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1906. 354 pp. Maroon cloth with gilt lettering. First edition, first printing. Near Fine with gilt stamping strong and bright, several small patches of wear to the surface of the cloth, light rubbing at corners and spine ends, front and rear inner hinges exposed leaving binding a bit tender. The famous African-American educator's account of building the Tuskegee Institute, a private black university in Alabama. Item #161228002

 $800

New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1903. 330 pp. Early reprint dated 1903 on the title page. Inscribed by Booker T. Washington to a former owner on the front free endpaper. Very Good, with rubbing to cloth at corners, spine ends and rear spine joint. A lovely, inscribed copy of Booker T. Washington's autobiography. Item #140938098

 $2,000

Los Angeles: Civil Rights Congress, 1953. First edition. [4], 44 pp. Stapled wraps. Very Good+ with wraps a little edge-worn. Letters from an African-American inmate on death row. Item #140938190

$75