Coal Black and the Seven Dudes

Vantage Press, New York, 1973 First edition hardcover, with dustcover. Black paper-covered boards, gilt spine lettering, 8 1/4 x 5 3/8 inches, 89 pp. Book good (inscription on the front pastedown, unsigned, but possibly by the author; modest foxing, edges of book block and endpapers; otherwise, pages clean and binding tight and square). Dustcover good (moderate wear; several short closed tears; mild foxing/soiling rear panel; 3/4 inch chip, rear panel; illustrated front panel still quite attractive; not price-clipped; now in mylar jacket). Written by a psychiatrist. Scarce. "Dr. Mehlinger's childhood experiences in his native city made him acutely aware of the psychic damage suffered by members of both black and white people as a result of racial prejudice and discrimination. In 1962, he founded the organization Image & Identification, to protest the then prevailing racist practices of the communications and advertising industry. Coal Black and the Seven Dudes is a further effort to enhance positive role identification in black children and elevate their self-esteem. It will also, he hopes, add to the merriment and laughter that children have traditionally derived from the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In this imaginative reworking of the Snow White story, the black hero is an omnipotent, omniscient Space Age supergenie who is brought into being by an act of love during a time of decline in humanistic values. During a brief stay on the planet Earth, he visits such diverse and farflung places as the Watts district of Los Angeles, Mississippi, New York's Harlem, a Chicago ghetto, the West Indies, London and Johannesburg in search of seven Black Dudes to aid him in an attempt to bring Christmas to an impoverished black family which, coincidentally, includes seven children. Each of the Dudes Coal Black recruits symbolizes a positive virtue and is, at the time of enlistment, engaged in an act of love that strengthens the bonds of brother-hood. The acts of love all involve some kind of self-sacrifice through which the person who gives is more richly rewarded that the one who receives. in the end, it is the seven black youngsters who gain the most: each is supplied with a quality which he lacks by one of the Dudes. The 'Christmas gifts' of these qualities are far more valuable that the usual material Christmas toys, for they lead to increased self-awareness and, in the long run, a closer identification with the human community. A Christmas fable for children, a spur to black consciousness-raising, a witty variation on an old literary theme, Coal Black and the Seven Dudes is all these --- and more. By means of deft prose, a magical-mystery tour narrative and, most importantly, the stress given to the theme of brotherhood, author Kermit T. Mehlinger has spun a tale that will enthrall and enlighten readers of all ages and colors." (K050). 1st Edition. Hardcover. Good/Good.