New York: Putnam, (2007.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A powerful - and moving - account of a chance encounter with a homeless street musician changed both the lives of Lopez, a journalist who at first saw only a column in the story, and that of the violinist. SIGNED on the title page. Basis for the movie of the same name with Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. 273 pp. ISBN: 978-0399155062.

New York: Simon & Schuster, (2006) sj. Hardcover first edition - A fictionalized account of Jackie Robinson's first season in the major leagues, as told by the bat boy for the Brooklyn Dodger, as he learns to overcome his own racism. Illustrated in full color by the award-winning African American artist Brian Pinkney, Square format, unpaginated.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (1991) dj. Hardcover first edition - A collection of 15 stories "many from South Carolina, especially from the Sea Islands, while others are from Florida, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Michigan, and the Cape Verde Islands. Most were collected 50 years ago or more by Zora Neale Hurston among others, and many are not in print in other collections. The use of dialect (especially in the Gullah stories from the South Carolina Sea Islands) adds to the sense of authenticity. Short informative notes at the end of each tale provide a context and explain any unfamiliar words. In the notes and reading lists link the stories to the history of slavery." (School Library Journal) Notes, bibliography, suggestions for further reading. 88 pp. ISBN: 0-684193337.

Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, n.d. (1998.). First edition - An attractive small broadside, an excerpt from this poem included in 'Configurations' published by Copper Canyon Press in 1998. Letterpress printed on heavy cream stock, title in red, text in black, measuring 5 1/2 inches wide by 8 inches tall.

New York: Pyramid Books, (1974.). Black seventeen year-old Jim Scott sees his work-study job as a television news cameraman as a way out of the ghetto. A Pyramid Hi-Lo original. 157 pp.

New York: Julian Messner, (1961) dj. Hardcover first edition - A biography for older children and young adults of one the greatest baseball players of all time. When he was called up by the Giants in 1951, he was rookie of the year, and 1954 after returning from 2 years in the Army during the Korean War, he was MVP - and is still known for "the catch" in the first game of the World series that year. One of a series of Sports Biographies published by Messner. Illustrated with photographs. Index. 192 pp.

Lexington, MA: Argonaut Press (1998). Includes more than 1,000 quotes from Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Lillian Smith, Arthur Ashe, Studs Terkel, and hundreds of others, on what it means to be black in the United States. Square format. Includes an index of the sources and another of the people being quoted. 164 pp.

New York: Spiegel & Grau, (2016). Hardcover first edition - McBride, a National Book Award winning author, and a musician himself "goes in search of the 'real' James Brown after receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth. His surprising journey illuminates not only our understanding of this immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated soul genius but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Browns legacy." Named one of the best books of the tear by NPR, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. 232 pp. ISBN: 978-0812993509.

New York: Gotham Books, (2008.) dj. Hardcover first edition - A book which celebrates hip-hop for what it is, but also defines what it is not, and that is a way for political change. Notes. 186 pp. ISBN: 9781592403745.

New York: Three Rivers Press/ Random House, (2001). First edition - A significant collection by poets of all ages and ethnicities - "These poems are tough, honest, astute, perceptive, lyrical, blunt, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and true. They shout, they curse, they whisper, and sing. But most of all, they tell it like it is. (Tony Medina, Introduction) Foreword by Dr. Sonia Sanchez. Among the contributors are Jayne Cortez, Amina Baraka, devorah major, Cornelius Eady, David Henderson, Eugene Redmond, Jeffrey Bernard Allen, and many more. Notes on contributors. xxxiii, 284 pp. ISBN: 0-609808400.

New York: Norton, 1994. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Author's fourth novel , set in Los Angeles in 1961 at the 'dawn of a hopeful era for America's black citizens.' SIGNED by author. ISBN: 0-393-036448.

New York: Norton, 1994. dj. SIGNED hardcover - Author's fourth novel , set in Los Angeles in 1961 at the 'dawn of a hopeful era for America's black citizens.' SIGNED by the author. ISBN: 0-393-036448.

New York: Norton, 1994. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Author's fourth novel, an Easy Rawlins mystery, set in Los Angeles in 1961 at the 'dawn of a hopeful era for America's black citizens.' SIGNED on title page. 255 pp. ISBN: 0-393-036448.

Boston: Little Brown, (2004.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - An Easy Rawlins mystery, set in Los Angeles in 1965 at the height of the Watts riots. SIGNED on the title page. 306 pp. ISBN: 0-316-073032.

New York & Boston: Little Brown, (1998) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - First science fiction novel by the author of the Easy Rawlins mystery series, this "imagines a world in which human potential is suddenly, amazingly fulfilled - a change that calls into question the meaning of human differences and the ultimate purpose and fate of the human race. Narrated by Chance, a biracial man whose entire life has been a struggle for self-definition, the novel traces the desperate attempts of the "Blues" with one of their own, a man who - struck by the inscrutable blue light at the moment he expired - has become the living embodiment of death." SIGNED on the title page. 296 pp. ISBN: 0-316570982.

New York: TOR / Tom Doherty Associates, (2013) dj. Hardcover first edition - Two short novels in which Mosley explores "life's cosmic questions" published dos-a-dos - that is, in a flip-over format In "The Gift of Fire" Prometheus emerges in present-day South Central Los Angeles where he is thrown into jail, and in "On the Head of a Pin" breakthroughs in advanced animatronics lead deep into the true nature of good an evil. 179, 104 pp. ISBN: 978-0765330086.

Boston: Little Brown, (2004.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - An Easy Rawlins mystery, set in Los Angeles in 1965 at the height of the Watts riots. SIGNED on the title page. 306 pp. ISBN: 0-316-073032.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. First edition - These books are notable for the amount of good - and interesting -writing compressed into one volume. Includes stories by Dorothy Allison, Louise Erdrich, Edwidge Danticat, E. L. Doctorow, Z. Z. Packer, Susan Straight, Mona Simpson, Adam Haslett and more. Brief biographies of the contributors. Edited and with introductions by Mosley and Katrina Kennison, series editor. Includes contributors' notes and list of 100 other distinguished stories of 2002. xv, 360 pp. ISBN: 0-618-197338.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. SIGNED first edition - These books are notable for the amount of good - and interesting -writing compressed into one volume. SIGNED by Susan Straight at her story "Mines." Also includes stories by Dorothy Allison, Louise Erdrich, Edwidge Danticat, E. L. Doctorow, Z. Z. Packer, Mona Simpson, Adam Haslett and more. Brief biographies of the contributors. Edited and with introductions by Mosley and Katrina Kennison, series editor. Includes contributors' notes and list of 100 other distinguished stories of 2002. xv, 360 pp. ISBN: 0-618-197338.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. SIGNED first edition - These books are notable for the amount of good - and interesting -writing compressed into one volume. SIGNED by Susan Straight at her story "Mines." Also includes stories by Dorothy Allison, Louise Erdrich, Edwidge Danticat, E. L. Doctorow, Z. Z. Packer, Mona Simpson, Adam Haslett and more. Brief biographies of the contributors. Edited and with introductions by Mosley and Katrina Kennison, series editor. Includes contributors' notes and list of 100 other distinguished stories of 2002. xv, 360 pp. ISBN: 0-618-197338.

New York: Scholastic, 2001. dj. Hardcover first edition - A look at Muhammad Ali's life from a talented writer for young readers. Photographs. Bibliography, chronology, index. 172 pp.

New York: Minerva Press, (1975.). The definitive book on contemporary country blues, one which focuses on the songs rather than the musicians, although it includes a 16 page insert of wonderful photographs. While this includes chapters on the Setting of the Blues, their history, and a defintiion of the blues, as well as one on the blues as poetry, the majority of the book contains complete annotated lyrics to over 200 songs, some with scores. The author, a folklorist, recorded thousands of songs in Louisiana, especially at Anglola Prison and the Cajun country in the southwestern part of the state.Index xv, 464 pp. ISBN: 0-308-102363.

New York: Harper Collins, (2013). First edition - Biography of the jazz great which focuses on his early years in Kansas City. 334 pp.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. SIGNED first edition - SIGNED on the first page. Novel transcending time and placeby this award-winning and highly praised Afro-Caribbean writer: the stories of a young Jewish woman in 20th century Germany becomes intertwined with that of an African general hired by the Doge in 16th century Venice,

Manchester, CT: Foghorn Publishers, (2007) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A Sacramento, California minister and motivational leader provides detailed keys to gaining financial security and living out personal passions, hobbies, and desires. A key focus on religion, belief and the power of God. SIGNED and dated on the front endpaper. ISBN: 1934466018.

London: The Women's Press, (1987). First edition - Second novel by this Jamaican born writer, the story of a woman's struggle for dignity against a background of urban racism. A book which "pulls no punches in the effort to portray the 'the forgotten and unglamorous section of my people' within a system which 'openly and systematically discriminates' against them." 165 pp plus 5 pp publisher's ads. ISBN: 0-704340232.

London: The Women's Press, (1988). First edition - Third novel by this Jamaican born writer, the story of two sisters "who could hardly be more different" - Verona is bright and capable, but defiantly fat and immersed in Mills and Boon romance novels, while Desiree is disatisfied with her live and mother and housewife. When John's grandparents arrive from Jamaica, life in Croyden gets a thorough shakeup and both sisters begin to rethink their lives. 231 pp. ISBN: 0-704341018.