SHAKESPEARE IN HARLEM
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942. First Edition. Item #7070
First Printing, one of 3,300 copies. Octavo (21.5cm); black and orange cloth-covered boards, with titles stamped in black on spine and in pink on front cover; orange topstain; dustjacket; [xiv],124,[6]pp, with frontispiece and 12 illustrations by E. McKnight Kauffer. Contemporary owner's ink name to front endpaper, else a fresh, Fine copy, with the topstain bright and unfaded. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $2.50), lightly edgeworn, with a hint of sunning to spine, a few tiny nicks, and some mild dust-soil to rear panel; Very Good+.
An attractive copy of Hughes's fourth full collection of poetry, a collaborative work with artist and graphic designer E. McKnight Kauffer. In his introduction, Hughes describes the collection as "a book of light verse. Afro-Americana in the blues mood. Poems syncopated and variegated in the colors of Harlem, Beale Street, West Dallas, and Chicago's South Side. Blues, ballads, and reels to be read aloud, crooned, shouted, recited, and sung. Some with gestures, some not – as you like. None with a far-away voice" (p.[ix]). Dickinson 12; Blockson 6355.
Price: $1,500.00