Search Results: African-American from Michael Pyron, Bookseller, ABAA

Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1925. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding/Very Good dust jacket. Octavo. [8], 313 pp. First edition, first printing. In publisher's cloth with dust jacket. An extremely fresh copy with little wear to speak of; contents are clean but for a Birmingham, AL bookseller's ticket on the front free endpaper; dust jacket is fairly nice with only light edgewear and soiling; price intact on the front flap. Born in Charleston, SC, Cohen was a prolific author. A collection of stories starring among others, Florian Slappey who was perhaps Cohen's most popular fictional character--a caricature of a black man from Birmingham. While Cohen purported to have a great deal of affection for his characters and wrote them with well-meaning affection, the patronization is apparent. Fairly uncommon in this condition.

Columbia, SC: State Printing Company, 1964. Hard Cover. Very Good binding/Very Good dust jacket. Octavo. 348 pp. Third Printing. As issued, in red cloth and dust jacket. A nice copy with limited wear; internally clean but for a contemporary gift inscription on the front free endpaper. Cream dust jacket is soiled, otherwise without significant wear.

New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1932. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding/near Very Good dust jacket. Octavo. [8], 325 pp. First edition, first printing. In publisher's cloth with dust jacket. An extremely fresh copy with little wear to speak of; contents are clean; dust jacket is quite nice with some light edgewear with some chipping at the head of the spine that just touches the title; lightly soiled; spine is a trifle faded; price intact on the front flap. Born in Charleston, SC, Cohen was a prolific author. A collection of stories starring Florian Slappey who was perhaps Cohen's most popular fictional character--a caricature of a black man from Birmingham. While Cohen purported to have a great deal of affection for his characters and wrote them with well-meaning affection, the patronization is apparent. Fairly uncommon in this condition.

Published by Request of the Convention of Diocese of Alabama, 1884. Original Wrappers. Good binding. Octavo. 16 pp. First edition. As issued, in printed wrappers. Wrappers are moderately soiled but only lightly worn; vertical crease the entire pamphlet where it was folded; contents show light and occasional spotting otherwise clean. Wilmer was born in Alexandria, VA. He graduated from Yale University in 1836 and then Union Theological Seminary in Richmond a few years later. He was ordained in Richmond and served throughout rural Virginia. In the midst of the Civil War, Wilmer was ordained Episcopal Bishop of Alabama. This present address is interesting in that it tangles with the racial complexity of Jim Crow south. On one hand Wilmer espouses "the genius of the mission of this out Church . . . to bind together in a common faith and discipline all races, orders, and conditions of men" (p. 2) with entrenched racial hierarchy of society, showing the condescension in descriptions like this: "Ethiopia… Read More

[Washington]: Tower Printers, 1848. Unbound. Very Good binding. Octavo. 8 pp. First edition. Unbound and uncut. Minor edgewear and soiling to the first and last leaf; light foxing. Dickinson argues in this speech that Congress does in fact have the right to determine whether new territories may be slave holding or not--this was not universally agreed upon at the time. He suggests that if an agreed upon and constitutional government for the Oregon Territory could be established, it might be a template for all future territorial governments. But the sticking point with southern legislators, he believes strongly that these territories should not allow slavery. An interesting speech from a fraught period of American expansion--a period in which the slaveholding and free states were pushed further apart. One of many issues precipitating secession and ultimately the Civil War. Rare in commerce and uncommon even in institutional holdings. OCLC identifies only 3 copies in institutional hands. OCLC:… Read More

[Washington]: Congressional Globe Office, 1848. Unbound. Very Good binding. Octavo. 8 pp. Unbound and uncut. Minor edgewear and soiling; light foxing. A reasonably nice copy of this speech that was never bound. This speech is a defense of himself and his ideas against a series of editorials published in the Union newspaper calling Wilmot's proposition to impose a tax on "slave property" a Wilmot Proviso, No. 2 and calling him a firebrand with "schemes and mischievous allies." In the midst of the heated debate over the fate of slavery in the territories, Wilmot was one who was central and was a polarizing figure of the time. Rare in commerce. OCLC identifies only copy in institutional holdings. OCLC 49945833.

[Washington]: [William A. Davis], 1817. Disbound. Very Good binding. Octavo. 5, [3 (blank)] pp. Removed from nonce volume. Leaves are detached; light toning and soiling; pencil note at the top of the first page. An early document of the "back to Africa" movement. The Society for the Colonizing of Free People of Colour of the United States was established in 1816 and petitioned Congress to help it in its goals. This report on that petition concerns the feasibility of negotiating with Great Britain to establish a colony of free blacks in Sierra Leone. The questions of a colony established by the U. S. is dismissed at that time. Shaw & Shoemaker 42738; Lib. Company. Afro-Americana, 10602.

New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1930. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding/Very Good dust jacket. Octavo. [8], 300 pp. First edition, first printing. In publisher's cloth with dust jacket. An extremely fresh copy with little wear to speak of; contents are clean; dust jacket is fairly nice with some very light edgewear including a small chip at the tail of the spine; lightly and evenly toned; though the spine is moderately darkened; price intact on the front flap. Born in Charleston, SC, Cohen was a prolific author. Florian Slappey was perhaps Cohen's most popular fictional character, a caricature of a black man from Birmingham. Peters, the central figure in this collection was one of Slappey's close friends. While Cohen purported to have a great deal of affection for his characters and wrote them with well-meaning affection, the patronization is apparent. Fairly uncommon in this condition.

[Washington]: Congressional Globe Office, 1848. Unbound. Very Good binding. Octavo. 7, [1] pp. First edition. Folded signature, never bound; opened, but untrimmed. Some loss to the bottom corner, limited to the margin, nowhere near the text; lightly toned; wrinkling to the final leaf. Brodhead was a Representative and Senator from Pennsylvania. In this speech he recognizes the inherent inequality between black and white people, even in free states, "we deprive them of the right to take part in the government; and, in truth, they are much less cared for, and enjoy less of the comforts of life, than in the South. They render menial service, seem to be the slaves of the neighborhood in which they live, and have no person to care for them in infancy and old age" (p. 3). Moral failings of the government aside, Brodhead argues for what he feels is a pragmatic compromise, something akin to the Missouri compromise in which some territories are allowed to determine whether they will be slaveholding or not.… Read More

New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1931. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding/near Very Good dust jacket. Octavo. [8], 341 pp. First edition, first printing. In publisher's cloth with dust jacket. An extremely fresh copy with little wear to speak of; contents are clean; dust jacket is fairly nice but for a sunned spine with titling illegible; otherwise only light edgewear; price intact on the front flap. Born in Charleston, SC, Cohen was a prolific author. A collection of stories starring among others, Florian Slappey who was perhaps Cohen's most popular fictional character--a caricature of a black man from Birmingham. While Cohen purported to have a great deal of affection for his characters and wrote them with well-meaning affection, the patronization is apparent. Fairly uncommon in this condition.

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1874. Hard Cover. near Good binding. 12mo. 279, [1], [6 (ads)] pp. First edition. In original cloth with title in gold on the spine. Binding is worn with some chipping to the backstrip and a closed tear along the top of the front joint; staining to the covers; corners frayed; despite the wear, it presents better than it sounds and the binding is solid; lacking the front free endpaper and the top of the title page is clipped, possibly to remove a previous owner name(?); there remains the previous owner name of historian and Lee biographer, Henry Alexander White / Columbia S.C.; there are occasional pencil notes in the margin that are likely in White's hand; very little in the way of foxing or toning. Fairly uncommon in the trade, Clark calls Pike's book, "one of the most interesting and valuable pictures of black reconstruction ever written. A former abolitionist, Pike was sympathetic with the whites, while wanting to see the Negroes receive the full benefits of… Read More

Toronto: Evangelical Publishers, 1939. Original Wrappers. Very Good binding. 12mo. 32 pp., illus. In original wrappers with cut-out as issued on the front wrapper so the frontispiece of Carver shows through. Some soiling to the wrappers, but largely a nice copy.

Raleigh, NC: Presses of Edwards & Broghton, 1898. Hard Cover. Good+ binding. Octavo. Bound as issued in green cloth with title stamped in gold on the front cover and spine; light silverfishing to the cloth; a bit shelfworn; some foxing and staining to the contents. A 19th century appeal for a geographical separation of the races as the only means to harmony.

Northampton, MA: Printed for Smith College by the Southworth Press, 1925. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding. Octavo. viii, 280, [1] pp., facsims. First edition. As issued in cloth backed boards with publisher's glassine wrapper. Spine is just a trifle sunned, otherwise, a remarkably bright copy in a surprisingly well preserved glassine wrapper; contents clean and binding sound. This is the fifth volume in a series of publications celebrating the 50th anniversary of Smith College. Bassett in his preface describes the collection of letters here first published: "All the letters in this book deal with the affairs of an ante-bellum Southern cotton plantation. Most of them were written by plantation overseers, and all of them closely concerned. All of them are taken from the Correspondence of James Knox Polk, president of the United States from 1849 to 1853. . . . Taken together they constitute a remarkably full and interesting record of some phases of the life on a cotton plantation in the old regime" (p. iii).

Original Wrappers. Very Good binding. An uncommon collection of promotional material from Tuskegee Institute. Contents include: 1) Tuskegee Institute, 1881-1931 | Souvenir Program, Exercises in Celebration of Founder's Day and the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Establishment of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute by Booker T. Washington, April 12-14, 1931 (Robert Russa Moton, Principal). Tuskegee Institute Press, 1931. Quarto. [24] pp., illus. In printed, patterned wrappers. Light shelfwear, only. Many full page photographs of the campus. (OCLC 298254312) 2) Zuber, Osburn. [cover title] Negro Scientist Shows 'Way Out' for Southern Farmers: A Story of George Washington Carver of Tuskegee. np/nd. Octavo. 21, [3 (blank)] pp., Pagination includes wrappers. As issued, stapled into printed wrapper. Light wear including a clipped inner bottom corner; previous owner name (Emily Bush) on the top of the front cover; stapled rusted by holding. (OCLC 11745628) 3) Dillard, James Hardy. Booker T.… Read More

Washington: Gideon & Co, 1850. Disbound. Good binding. Octavo. 16 pp. Removed from a binding. Spine has been mended with clear archival tape; contemporary owner signature over the title with some bleed-through to subsequent leaves, otherwise, a nice copy of Stanly's controversial pro-Union speech. While known for having volatile temperament in his early political life, he mellowed in time. And while an enslaver, he was a southern Representative that was not particularly attached to the institution. He was a staunch anti-secessionist and in this controversial speech he presented an evenhanded argument that the North was not wholly hostile to the South in such a way to justify secession, writing, "this Union cannot be, shall not be destroyed. Those whom God hath joined together, no man or set of men can put asunder" (p. 16). While an unpopular opinion in 1850, it was not so unpopular to cost him reelection in 1851. Thomas Jefferey in his entry in the American National Biography summarizes Stanly thus,… Read More