Featured Books

A selection from our inventory –

  • BORN WITH THE BLUES: Perry Bradford's Own Story. The True Story of the Pioneering Blues Singers and Musicians in the Early Days of Jazz. by Bradford, Perry (1893-1970)
    Bradford, Perry (1893-1970)
    BORN WITH THE BLUES: Perry Bradford's Own Story. The True Story of the Pioneering Blues Singers and Musicians in the Early Days of Jazz.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: Oak Publications, (1965) dj. Hardcover first edition - An account by this singer, songwriter, pianist and vaudeville and minstrel performer who has been credited with forever changing the sound of American popular music by convincing Okeh Records to release the first Blues record in 1920 with Mamie Smith singing two of his songs - 'That Thing Called Love' and 'You CanÕt Keep a Good Man Down.' The next record released by Okeh - 'Crazy Blues', and 'ItÕ s Right Here for You' - was promoted as an African-American singer and band, and reportedly sold more than a million copies. Some other record labels began to jump on the bandwagon. While this is described as an autobiography, and…

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    New York: Oak Publications, (1965) dj. Hardcover first edition - An account by this singer, songwriter, pianist and vaudeville and minstrel performer who has been credited with forever changing the sound of American popular music by convincing Okeh Records to release the first Blues record in 1920 with Mamie Smith singing two of his songs - 'That Thing Called Love' and 'You CanÕt Keep a Good Man Down.' The next record released by Okeh - 'Crazy Blues', and 'ItÕ s Right Here for You' - was promoted as an African-American singer and band, and reportedly sold more than a million copies. Some other record labels began to jump on the bandwagon. While this is described as an autobiography, and includes many entertaining stories from Bradford's life, it is primarily an attempt to set the record straight and to give recognition to many forgotten or overlooked early Black musicians, including Bradford himself. Contains the sheet music for 11 of his songs, including those in the first two Okeh recordings and illustrated with many photographs. Foreword by Noble Sissle. Index. Slightly oversized format. 175 pp plus final drawing.

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    Condition: Very good red cloth in a good only dust jacket (some offsetting from the red cloth to the interior of the dj, several chips and other edgewear to the dj) Hard to find in any edition, but scarce in hardcover in a dustjacket.

    Book ID: 88879
    View cart More details Price: $100.00
  • MAD DOG BLACK LADY. by Coleman, Wanda.
    Coleman, Wanda.
    MAD DOG BLACK LADY.

    Edition: Limited, signed first edition.

    Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. SIGNED hardcover first edition - African American poet's first regularly published collection. #129 out of 200 copies numbered and signed by Coleman. 133 pp plus colophon and final photograph of author. ISBN: 0-876854129.

    Condition: Fine in illustrated boards with burgundy cloth spine, paper title label on spine, in original acetate wrapper.

    Book ID: 88745
    View cart More details Price: $500.00
  • THE MYSTERY OF THE FOLDING KEY. by Seaman, Augusta Huiell.
    Seaman, Augusta Huiell.
    THE MYSTERY OF THE FOLDING KEY.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943. dj. Hardcover first edition - Mystery connecting World War II with the Civil War: when June and her young brother Chuck are collecting keys to aid in the war effort, they are given many by elderly Miss Abbie, and when the box is accidentally dropped they find a strange folding key - a key which enables them to resolve a mystery with its roots in the Civil War era. Illustrated by Manning de V Lee. One of Seaman's most difficult to find titles, and very scarce in dust jacket. 208 pp.

    Condition: Near fine in dark green boards in a good only dust jacket with overall edgewear, some sunning to the spine, the loss of some paper at the ends of the spine, but complete and with price of $2.00 on dj flap)

    Book ID: 88715
    View cart More details Price: $500.00
  • WE WON'T MOVE: Poems and Photographs of the International Hotel Struggle. by Lim, Genny, Teri Lee, Nelson Yee, Al Robles, Janice Mirikitani and others.
    Lim, Genny, Teri Lee, Nelson Yee, Al Robles, Janice Mirikitani and others.
    WE WON'T MOVE: Poems and Photographs of the International Hotel Struggle.

    Edition: 2nd printing.

    San Francisco: Kearny Street Workshop 1977. A scarce booklet featuring poetry and photography by members of the Kearny Street Workshop - including Teri Lee, Nelson Yee, Al Robles, Genny Lim, Janice Mirikitani and others - documenting a 10 fight attempt ing to stop the eviction of the elderly Filipinos for whom the hotel had been home for many years. Originally built as a luxury destination in 1854, moved from Jackson St to Kearny St in 1873, and rebuilt after the Great Earthquake of 1906, by 1968 it had become a low-income single-room-occupancy residential hotel in what was left of Manilatown. While originally the fight was to halt the tragic eviction process and larger community demise, it also sparked grassroots…

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    San Francisco: Kearny Street Workshop 1977. A scarce booklet featuring poetry and photography by members of the Kearny Street Workshop - including Teri Lee, Nelson Yee, Al Robles, Genny Lim, Janice Mirikitani and others - documenting a 10 fight attempt ing to stop the eviction of the elderly Filipinos for whom the hotel had been home for many years. Originally built as a luxury destination in 1854, moved from Jackson St to Kearny St in 1873, and rebuilt after the Great Earthquake of 1906, by 1968 it had become a low-income single-room-occupancy residential hotel in what was left of Manilatown. While originally the fight was to halt the tragic eviction process and larger community demise, it also sparked grassroots activism for affordable senior housing and was influential in developing a nationwide activist Asian American Movement. This copy has two newspaper photographs carefully taped inside the covers - in the front, the police on horseback are shown brutally riding through the phalanx of over 2000 protestors who tried to create a blockade to protect the building and in the rear is the infamous picture of Sheriff Richard Hongisto taking a sledgehammer to an apartment door, and on the final page is the handwritten comment 'Eviction carried out 8/4 at 3:00 AM" 40 pp. The front cover features a photograph of Felix Ayson standing in front of an International Hotel posting that announces a "rally to stop eviction." The eviction of the International Hotel tenants outraged the nation, and ended the developer's plans. After the building was demolished the lot stood empty for many years, until almost 30 years later, the city of San Francisco completed a new I-Hotel to provide affordable housing for senior citizens and low income residents and to house a Manila Cultural Center.

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    Condition: Near fine in stapled wrappers.

    Book ID: 88646
    View cart More details Price: $100.00
  • "MOTHER BIRD HATCHING THE ALPHABET" (An Untitled Limited Edition Drawing). by Atwood, Margaret.
    Atwood, Margaret.
    "MOTHER BIRD HATCHING THE ALPHABET" (An Untitled Limited Edition Drawing).

    Edition: Limited, signed first edition.

    Charleston, WV: Parchment Gallery Graphics, University of Charleston, [1998.]. SIGNED first edition - An ink drawing, measuring 7 by 8 1/2 inches, printed on Arches fine rag, signed and numbered by Atwood. Accompanying this is a separate sheet of paper with the colophon, which states "This is her first individually printed art work and it does not have a title, but clearly it shows an interesting metaphor that connects her to her craft as writer-- mother bird hatching the alphabet." Although best known for her writing, Atwood also illustrated her first book "Double Persephone" and provided the original cover illustrations for several other of her earlier works. One of 99 numbered copies (out of a total edition of 120 copies).

    Condition: Fine with colophon sheet in original unused mailing envelope.

    Book ID: 88644
    View cart More details Price: $125.00
  • BLACK BORDERS. by Barboza, Anthony, with poetry by Ntozake Shange and Steven Barboza
    Barboza, Anthony, with poetry by Ntozake Shange and Steven Barboza
    BLACK BORDERS.

    Edition: First printing in wrappers. No hardcover edition.

    New York: By the author, (1980). SIGNED first edition - A book which was the culmination of a series of photographs Barboza created between 1975-1980, with the publication of this funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The title refers both the black border around each photograph, which gives a unity to the book, and to the fact that most, although not all, portraits are of African Americans, of writers, artists and musicians working on the edge (or on the border) "What sets these photographs apart, and gives them their durable vitality, is their innovative use of lighting and backgrounds. . Barboza turns the dark distorted forms into expressive echoes of the sitters. Underneath setups…

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    New York: By the author, (1980). SIGNED first edition - A book which was the culmination of a series of photographs Barboza created between 1975-1980, with the publication of this funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The title refers both the black border around each photograph, which gives a unity to the book, and to the fact that most, although not all, portraits are of African Americans, of writers, artists and musicians working on the edge (or on the border) "What sets these photographs apart, and gives them their durable vitality, is their innovative use of lighting and backgrounds. . Barboza turns the dark distorted forms into expressive echoes of the sitters. Underneath setups create shadows that loom above and behind Normal Lewis and the World Saxophone Quartet, while side arrangements turn the shadows into repetitions and echoes, doubling Amiri Baraka, and James Baldwin. Barboza then went on to add a bit of blur to some of the portraits, creating the appearance of back and forth motion or elusive ghosting to Ntozake Shange and Pharoah Sanders. The backdrops that he created and employed were equally unorthodox. Rolls of hanging paper were cut, slashed, and sliced, creating abstract patters of squiggles, lines, and openings, and then overpainted with expressive dashes and arcs of silvery spray paint. . So James Van Der Zee is surrounded by a whorling swirl of shining light, Toukie Smith shares the stage with snake-like back-and-forth forms." (Loring Knoblauch, Collectordaily) . Includes poetry by Ntozake Shange and Steven Barboza and brief handwritten captions under each portrait. SIGNED on the title page by Barboza and numbered AB/72, dated 1981. Square format, unpaginated (32 pp)

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    Condition: Very near fine in illustrated wrappers. Quite scarce now.

    Book ID: 88626
    View cart More details Price: $750.00
  • GOD'S COUNTRY. by Everett, Percival.
    Everett, Percival.
    GOD'S COUNTRY.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York & London: Faber & Faber, (1994) dj. Hardcover first edition - An early novel by the author now best known for 'Erasure' (basis for the film "American Fiction") and the first book in the publisher's Callaloo series, dedicated to books by ``writers of African descent.'' This is a "corrosively funny and disquieting picaresque novel which addresses the politics of identity and the racist brutality that marked America's westward expansion after the Civil War. " Hard to find in the first edition, and especially so in this condition. 219 pp. ISBN: 978-057119832-0.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket (appears unread.)

    Book ID: 88508
    View cart More details Price: $65.00
  • THE CONTINENTAL DOLLAR. by Knipe, Emilie Benson and Alden Arthur Knipe,
    Knipe, Emilie Benson and Alden Arthur Knipe,
    THE CONTINENTAL DOLLAR.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: The Century Company, 1923. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - An historical novel for young adults by this husband and wife team, a story of adventure in Revolutionary America and based on real events. Illustrated by Emilie Benson Knipe with a frontispiece and three internal plates, as well as illustrated boards. INSCRIBED on the front endpaper "For our little messenger Bernice" and signed by Emilie Knipe. Date of 1923 on title page, as required for a first edition. 372 pp.

    Condition: Near fine in illustrated brick red boards in a very good dust jacket with some minor chipping to the ends of the spine. Very uncommon in the first edition, and especially so signed and in a dustjacket. .

    Book ID: 88135
    View cart More details Price: $200.00