Strange Fruit Hardcover - 1944

New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1944. Lillian Eugenia Smith (1897-1966) was a "white woman who openly embraced controversial positions on matters of race and gender equality, she was a southern liberal unafraid to criticize segregation and work toward the dismantling of Jim Crow laws, at a time when such actions virtually guaranteed social ostracism." Dealing with inter-racial love, this book was banned in Boston, Detroit, and from the USPS, thus guaranteeing its commercial success. This is a Near Fine copy of a Later Printing (the 10th). This is a wartime edition, with reset plates and type a bit smaller than the First Edition, to save paper. Blue cloth binding with titling in yellow and white on the spine and front cover. Clean text; 250 pages. Contemporary (1944) signature on the FFEP; small bookseller's label on the rear paste-down. The only major defect is an incorrect trimming of pages 243 to 245, a publisher's binding mistake. The dustjacket, a rather nice design by Richard Floethe, is unclipped; it shows some wear at the margins with wrinkling and chipping. In an archival plastic protector.. Fourth Printing.. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Very Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.