San Francisco: MacAdam / Cage, (2004.) dj. Hardcover first edition - First novel by this African American writer, set in a war-torn former British colony in West Africa, this is based, in part, on his Peace Corps experience in Sierra Leone. Described as a 'harrowing and compelling' debut. 202 pp. ISBN: 1931561605.

Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998. dj. Hardcover first edition - The fifth book by this highly praised African American poet, one which collects 104 poems, including 18 new poems. A title in the Southern Messenger Poets series. xiii, 101 pp. ISBN: 0-807123137.

New Haven and London: Yale University Press, (1981) dj. Hardcover first edition - In addition to giving an historical perspective and discussing themes found in works by Black authors, this focuses on representive novels by seven writers - Chinua Achebe, George Lamming, Jean Toomer, William Attaway, Toni Morrison, Ayi Kweh Armah and Wole Soyinka. Works cited, index. x, 209 pp. ISBN: 0-300025734.

New York: Pamela Dorman Books / Viking, (2014). First edition - The author's first novel, a story of complicated family relationships. When a young African American California woman unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in southern Louisiana, she sees this as a chance to start over. She moves there with her 11 year old daughter determined to succeed, despite a mountain of debt and no idea what she is really getting into. Book was very loosely adapted as the basis for the highly praised Ava DuVernay produced television series for the Oprah Winfrey Network. 372 pp.

Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1975. dj. Hardcover first edition - Twelve short stories or character sketches describing African-American life in a rural and passing South. 146 pp. ISBN: 0-88258-0469.

Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1975. dj. Hardcover first edition - Twelve short stories or character sketches describing African-American life in a rural and passing South. 146 pp. ISBN: 0-88258-0469.

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992. dj. Hardcover first edition - The story of Collis Phillips, who became a successful boxer in New Orleans during the height of Jim Crow, and of his family, of the triumphs and the tragedies. Before writing this moving book, Bates spent 10 years with the Phillips family from Collis down thru his great-great grandson, as a friend and biographer. 421 pp plus a section of glossy photographs.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. dj. Hardcover first edition - The autobiography of a remarkable woman, as well as the story of three generations of an African-American family. "The seventh of eight children, Freddie Mae Baxter was born in 1923 in rural South Carolina. When her father left the family, her mother had to raise the children alone, and Freddie Mae went to work - first picking cotton, then cooking for the white families in town. At seventeen, she decided to go up North in search of new horizons and a better life." In Harlem she played saxophone in an all-girls' band - and through good times and bad, she remained optimistic. Frontispiece. 223 pp. ISBN: 0-375406204.

El Cerrito, CA: Downey Place Publishing House, 1990. Uncommon study of this Black journalist and writer. Beasley was the first to produce a history of Black Californians and she was, for almost two decades, a featured columnist with Oakland Tribune. Illustrated with photographs. Footnotes, index. vii, 66 pp. ISBN: 0-910823030.

New York: Picador, (1997). First novel by this African American poet - a funny and moving satire on issues of race, life in Los Angeles, and the coming of age story of Gunnar Kaufman, who is not typical in any way. Praise from such writers as Walter Mosley, Clarence Major and Jessica Hagedorn. 225 pp. ISBN: 0-312-28019X.

New York: Basic Books (HarperCollins), 1996. dj. Hardcover first edition - Review copy with publisher's material laid in.

Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co Inc, 1975. dj. Hardcover first edition - Starting with the landing of the first blacks at Jamestown in 1619, this looks not just at the first black inhabitants of the colonies but also at the custom of white servitude which preceded the slave trade. It is divided into two sections - foundations and directions - and it highlights alternatives which could have been taken, but were not. Illustrated with sepia-toned full page drawings by Charles White. Bibliography, index.
Large square format. 356 pp. ISBN: 0-874850711.

New York: Morrow (imprint of Harper Collins), (2022). First edition - The first novel by this British-Nigerian author, the story of a previously close Nigerian immigrant family that is beginning to fall apart and a daughter's attempt to find out why. 386 pp.

New York: Norton, (1966.). Covers events from the filing of the original suit on behalf of 13 African American children in Topeka, Kansas to the decision in the 1954 landmark case, Brown v. The Board of Education. Index of juridical terms and general index. 161 pp.

New York: Doubleday, (2001) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - In ancient West Africa, the drum was more than a musical instrument, it was a vehicle of communication-it conveyed information, told stories, and passed on the wisdom of generations. A novel which is a reminder of the importance of honoring the past as a means of moving safely and firmly into the future, one which will stir up controversy about the impact, good and bad, of rap culture. Boldly INSCRIBED on the title page. 210 pp. ISBN: 0-385498454.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981. Hardcover first edition - The story of a rural community in South Carolina founded in 1870 as a settlement of black farmers, tenants and sharecroppers. 329 pgs, including extensive notes, an essay on sources and methodology and an index.

London: Gordon & Cremonesi, 1976. dj. Hardcover first edition - A look at what is necessary to create racial harmony by a former member of Parliament. Introduction by Michael Foot. Illustrated with photographs.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, (1989, c 1969). An example of oral folk literature, this epic, sung and narrated in a Bantu language and acted out by a member of the Nyanga tribe in the remote forest regions of eastern Zaire, celebrated the feats of Mwindo. It is here presented in prose form, interspersed with song and proverbs in verse, and translated by the editors. Included is the original Nyanga text. Extensive footnotes, index. viii, 213 pp. ISBN: 0-520020499.

New York: Simon & Schuster, (2023) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's first book, a collection of ten short stories shortlisted for the National Book award, which noted hat "the characters in [these] stories are forced to reckon with conflicts between religion and independence. . . Bilal compassionately unfurls the inner lives of her protagonists, examining the complex contradictions of the Black Muslim experience in America." 238 pp.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, (1968) dj. Hardcover - From the foreword: "The Negro family can be best understood when viewed as a varied and complex institution within the Negro community, which is in turn highly interdependent with their institutions in the wider white society." Index, v, 218 pp.

Oklahoma City: Paradigm Publishing, (2001.). SIGNED first edition - A novel of family violence, of the scars it leaves on the children, and of forgiveness. INSCRIBED by the author on the first page. Promotional card laid in. ISBN: 0-708620-32.

Toronto: Hanover Square Press, (2022). First edition - Novel by this award-winning writer, a letter from a father, dying of cancer, to his long-estranged gay son. Although they had not spoken in many years, he wants Isaac to know about his ancestral legacy in Arkansas, and the complicated relationship with Isaac's mother. A moving story of love and reconciliation and a plea for understanding. 301 pp.

New York: Pantheon, 1992. dj. SIGNED hardcover - Autobiography of the woman who took over leadership of the Black Panther Party in 1974 when Huey Newton fled the country. A vivid story of the period, of one woman's struggles to survive and to define herself, and of the conflict between black men and women. SIGNED on the title page. Photographs. 452 pp. ISBN: 0-679-419446.

New York: Random House, 1969. dj. SIGNED hardcover - Edited and with an introduction by Robert Scheer. Includes the Playboy Interview, an open letter to Ronald Reagan, a letter describing Cleaver's first encounter with the Black Panthers and more. Laid in is a newspaper clipping dated 12/7/75 by Kathryn Cleaver on "Why Eldridge Cleaver has come home." SIGNED on the title page by editor Robert Scheer. 211 pp.

New York: Random House, 1969. dj. Hardcover first edition - Edited and with an introduction by Robert Scheer. Includes the Playboy Interview, an open letter to Ronald Reagan, a letter describing Cleaver's first encounter with the Black Panthers, essays on Stokeley Carmichael, the death of Martin Luther King and more. 211 pp

New York: Atria Books, (2006.) dj. SIGNED hardcover - An inside account of the Black Panther party by one of the organization's central committee members, and a personal account of a young man, angered by the racism he saw everywhere in his native San Diego, who became a revolutionary and an activist. SIGNED on the title page by Elaine Brown, who wrote the foreword. Brown became Chairman of the Black Panthers in 1974. the first woman to hold such a position, and she remains an activist. Photographs. Chronology, index.xi, 302 pp. ISBN: 0-7434-82662.

Los Angeles: Holloway House, (1991.). First edition - "The True and Uncensored Story of the Life and Death of the Black Panther Party." Many black and white photographs. Epilogue by Ray Locke. Index. 240 pp. ISBN: 0-87067-7519.

New York: Cornell University Press, 1989. The first full-scale study of the role African Americans played in building support for abolition in Great Britain - among those who travelled and spoke frequently were Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, the Crafts, Martin Delany, and others. Many were fugitive slaves lecturing on their experiences; others came to study at British universities, including Jesse Glasgow and McCune Smith. Bibliography, index.

New York: Cornell University Press, (1989). Studies of six African American abolitionists all of whom persevered in the face of staggering oppresion: the fugitive slave Revered James W.C. Pennington, church leader and anti-slavery orator, recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Heidelberg; former Georgia slaves William and Ellen Craft who spent 19 years in exile as part of the British abolitionist movement; Jamaican born Robert Campbell, editor, author and businessman; North Carolina slave John Sella Martin, who was sold several times before escaping to the North; and New York born William Howard Day, newpaper publisher, political organizer and educator. Illustrated. Selected bibliography. Index. xviii, 417 pp. ISBN: 0-801496756.