Search Results: AFRICAN AMERICAN from Downtown Brown Books, ABAA

Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 2018. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A novel about a man who is unjustly convicted of a crime and the effect on his marriage when he is exonerated. Selected for Oprah's Book Club. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed by the author on the title page.

New York: Amistad, 2020. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A novel set in the African American music community of Detroit. The author is a professor and writer-in-residence in the Department of African American Studies at Vanderbilt University. First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed by the author on the title page. With an information card from the Parnassus Books Signed First Editions Club laid in.

Brooklyn: Black Photographers Annual, 1974. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. The second of four volumes seeking to define "a new Blackness, real and strong as our history, pushing consciousness toward a new place" through photography (quoted from the first volume). At the time Joe Crawford started this series, African American photographers had been almost completely left out of the photographic literature. See the essay by Carla Williams in Aperture 223 for a short study of the place of these "annuals" (which were issued several years apart) in photographic history. This volume reproduces with well-printed halftones the images of 51 black photographers from the US, England, and Canada. Contributors include Roy DeCarava, James Van DerZee, Ming Smith, St. Clair Bourne, and Chuck Stewart. Three photographers, P. H. Polk, Jimmie Manns, and Ted Gray, are given portfolios of several images, with a biographical introduction. Gray offers one of the most compelling and disturbing images in the book.… Read More

New York: DAW Books, 2015. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A prequel to Who Fears Death, about a genetically engineered woman named Phoenix who gradually realizes that her home is really a prison. Okorafor distinct Africanfuturism style draws upon her Nigerian heritage and her American upbringing. First edition (first printing with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed by Okorafor on the title page with a small sun-like ornament, which she has repeated on the fore-edge of the book.

New York: John Day Company, 1934. Hardcover. Very good. Bright Ambush won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1935, when Wurdemann was only 24 years old, making her the youngest recipient of the award. [xvi], 76, [4] pages. First edition (first printing). A very good copy in the publisher's green cloth; lacking the uncommon dust jacket. This copy belonged to the Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, with his ownership signature on the front free endpaper. Several poems have blue pencil checks in the margin, sometimes next to the title; other times next to a specific line, like "But a brook that runs over and nibbles its shadow" (p. 63).

Detroit: Randall, Photographer, 1881. Ephemera. Very good. A full-length cabinet card portrait of Sojourner Truth with the caption, "I sell the shadow to support the substance." This is one of Truth's last portraits, taken when she was in her eighties and purchased in bulk to sell at events, hence the caption. During the Civil War, Truth took the unusual step of acquiring the copyright to her portrait, giving her control over both the distribution of her image and the money it generated. The verso (back) of the mount of this photograph includes Truth's copyright statement. Truth (1797-1883), born Isabella Baumfree, was one of the best-known abolitionists and women's rights advocates of the 19th century. She traveled the country for decades giving talks and attending conferences, selling her photographs-her "shadow"-as a primary means of support. The art professor Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby has published an extensive study of Truth's photographs (Enduring Truths, 2015). Based on Grigsby's research into… Read More

1980. An original black-and-white gelatin silver print photograph of Audre Lorde speaking, pictured in three-quarters profile. Lorde (1934-1992) is an influential and popular writer, a self-described, "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet." The image is inscribed on the back (verso) and signed "Audrey Lorde." Printed on 8 by 10 inch Kodak paper, with the image slightly smaller. The photographer is not identified. The photograph is fine; the signature is a bit faint and hard to read. It says "For ___-and his ___ Audrey Lorde.

Berkeley: Image Comics, 2013. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. A volume collecting Chew comics nos. 1 to 20, with extras at the end. The story follows detective Tony Chu, who gets psychic emanations from all foods except canned beets-it's a hard-boiled satire of foodie culture. The artist, Rob Guillory is one of the too-small number of Black comic creators. This collection was issued in three formats: a trade hardcover in a black slipcase; a signed/numbered edition of 200 copies signed by Layman and Guillory on a tipped-in page, and this New York Comic-Con version, in a red slipcase. 8-1/4 by 12-1/4 inches. 576 pages. Full color. First edition (NYCC issue). A fine book in a near fine slipcase with just a touch of wear and a few small dents. This copy is signed by both author and artist and includes a large sketch of the main character by Guillory. Not issued in a dust jacket.

Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1980. Photograph. Fine. In this Lange image, a man and woman, both African American, stand in a field holding hoes or other farming implements. Lange took this image while working for the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration (two WPA agencies). The most famous image from this period in her career is Migrant Mother, the iconic Depression-era photograph. Lange's images from this era often have descriptive names rather than titles, and they have changed over time. This one is called "Cotton Sharecroppers"... on the Library of Congress website; "Greene County, Georgia" is written in pencil on the back (verso) of this photograph. At the time she took this photograph, Lange was working for the federal government and so the negatives belonged to her employer. For decades they have been on deposit at the Library of Congress and for many years, anyone could ask the library to make prints from the negatives. In this case, the negative (as… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A children's picture-book about the late, great tennis player and his six-year-old daughter, written by his wife. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs showing their father-daughter relationship. First edition (first printing with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. This copy is inscribed on the dedication page, "To: Cullen, Miles and Jordan. From: Camera Ashe." From the handwriting, this is an early inscription. Uncommon signed.

Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1994. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author's verse-play set among enslaved people on a plantation in antebellum South Carolina. Dove also served as the US Poet Laureate. This is one of 224 numbered copies, signed by the author on the title page. 140 pages. First edition (first printing). A fine copy in the publisher's purple and black cloth binding (hardcover). This is no. 33 of 224, signed by Dove.

Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2020. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed by the author on a laid in bookplate. With an information card from the Parnassus Books Signed First Editions Club laid in. A flyer printing a note from the author is also laid in.

Paris: Editions Buchet/Chastel-Corrêa, 1958. First Edition. Trade paperback. Fine. A travelog and critique of Franco's Spain by the author of Native Son. Translated into French by R. Giroux. Wright (1902-1960), one of the most important writers of the 20th century, chronicled African American life in novels and essays, but grew disillusioned with racism in the United States and moved to France in 1946. First French edition. A lovely copy in the original wrappers (paperback covers) and the publisher's glassine. Pages tanned, as usual. This copy is inscribed by Wright, "A M. Fernand Fahre, Hommage de l'auteur Richard Wright." Books signed by Wright are not common.

New York: World Publishing Company, 1971. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The memoirs of the brother of the assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers. xii, 196 pages. First edition (stated first printing). Some spotting to the front board, else very good in a very good dust jacket with shallow chipping to the top of the spine. Pages tanned, as usual. Inscribed by the author, "Dear Mrs Benson, Thanks very much, Charles Evers.

Paris: Julliard, 1960. First French Edition. Paperback. Very good. A French translation of Wright's last novel, a grim story of a Black mortician trying to navigate life in Jim Crow Mississippi. With an interview with Wright by Maurice Nadeau and a portrait of him by Monique Métrot. Issued as Les lettres nouvelles no. 3. 459 pages. First edition in French. The original yellow printed wrappers (paper covers) are a bit foxed, but are generally very good, lacking the original publisher's glassine. This copy is inscribed by the author to a French scholar of Islam, "A-Louis Massignon cordial homage Richard Wright." Wright died at the end of 1960, while living in France. Signed copies of this book, therefore, are somewhat uncommon.

Charleston: Steam Power Press of Walker, Evans & Co, 1858. First Edition. Pamphlet. Very Good. A Southerner argues that a revived foreign slave trade was crucial to the Southern economy. Spratt believed that bringing newly enslaved people to the US from Africa would reduce the price of slaves in the United States, lower labor costs, and put enslavement of Africans within the economic reach of the average Southern man. His views were not widely adopted, in large part because existing enslavers did not want to see their property devalued. Indeed, Virginia joined the Confederacy with the condition that the ban on imported slaves would be continued (see Conrad, In the Hands of Strangers, p. 427-428). Sabin 89749. 31 pages. First edition. Very good in original string-tied self wrappers. Old address and postmark on the blank back cover; the postage stamp has been removed.

New Orleans: Headquarters, Department of the Gulf, 1862. Ephemera. Fine. An order from the Union Army in charge of New Orleans implementing new rules for enslaved people held in the jail. At the time of the Union occupation of New Orleans, slaves could be imprisoned for committing crimes, but their enslavers could also hire them out to the municipal work gang and they would be housed in the jail as inmates when they were not working (see Records of Correctional Institutions in the City Archives, New Orleans Public Library). The new orders printed here required enslavers to pre-pay the costs of imprisoning their slaves, "the slave to be released when the money is exhausted." Any enslaved person whose cost of maintenance is not paid within 10 days should "be discharged." The explanation turned the logic of slavery on itself, reflecting the weak hold enslavers had on their human property following the publication of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and in light of the protections offered to… Read More

[Washington, D.C.?]: (n.p.), 1871. First Edition. Pamphlet. A four-part defense of the Freedmen's Bureau and its head, Major General Oliver O. Howard, spurred by a proposed amendment to cut the $5,000 budget for the hospital in Washington, D.C. and a speech accusing the agency of "plundering the public treasuring." The Freedmen's Bureau was a Reconstruction-era agency set up to assist the formerly enslaved citizens of the country following the Civil War. 8 pages. First edition (first printing). A very good copy; a single sheet, folded to make eight pages, as issued.

New York: Bulfinch Press / Little, Brown and Company in Association with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1997. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. A survey of the great photographer's career. With 95 color and 195 duotone illustrations. 10-1/4 by 12-1/4 inches. 360 pages. First edition (stated). One lower corner bumped, else near fine in a near fine dust jacket.

Stanford, CA: C. P. Times Press, 1984. First Edition. Pamphlet. Near fine. A three-poem chapbook by one of the founders of the Black Panthers. The title poem is about China. [12] pages. 4-1/2 by 6 inches. A near fine copy in wrappers (pamphlet). Staples a bit rusted.