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  • [Black Panthers] Cleaver, Eldridge. (Scheer, Robert, editor)
    ELDRIDGE CLEAVER: Post Prison Writings and Speeches.

    Edition: 2nd printing.

    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.

    Condition: Very good in a very good dustjacket (toning to endpaper from clipping, price-clipped dj.)

    Book ID: 14429
    View cart More details Price: $35.00
  • Bolton, Ruthie.
    GAL: A True Life.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994. dj. Hardcover first edition - The story of a young black girl, abandoned by her 13 year old mother, raised by her grandparents until the day she witnessed her stepgrandfather beat her grandmother to death - and ultimately the story of her survival and her courage. Foreword by Josephine Humphreys. ISBN: 0-15-1001049.

    Condition: Very good in a near fine dust jacket (bookplate, corners of book slightly bumped.)

    Book ID: 20593
    View cart More details Price: $18.00
  • Bolton, Ruthie.
    GAL: A True Life.

    Edition: Later printing.

    New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994. dj. Hardcover - The story of a young black girl, abandoned by her 13 year old mother, raised by her grandparents until the day she witnessed her stepgrandfather beat her grandmother to death - and ultimately the story of her survival and her courage. Foreword by Josephine Humphreys. ISBN: 0-15-1001049.

    Condition: Very near fine in a good only dustjacket (edgewear, creasing to dj.)

    Book ID: 15578
    View cart More details Price: $12.50
  • Bolton, Ruthie.
    GAL: A True Life.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994. dj. Hardcover first edition - The story of a young black girl, abandoned by her 13 year old mother, raised by her grandparents until the day she witnessed her stepgrandfather beat her grandmother to death - and ultimately the story of her survival and her courage. Foreword by Josephine Humphreys. ISBN: 0-15-1001049.

    Condition: Near fine in a fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 17633
    View cart More details Price: $25.00
  • Bolton, Ruthie.
    GAL: A True Life.

    Edition: Uncorrected proof for the first UK edition of this title - a paperback original there.

    London: Penguin, nd. First edition - The story of a young black girl, abandoned by her 13 year old mother, raised by her grandparents until the day she witnessed her stepgrandfather beat her grandmother to death - and ultimately the story of her survival and her courage.

    Condition: Very good in stiff wrappers.

    Book ID: 15341
    View cart More details Price: $12.00
  • DRUMS AT DUSK. by Bontemps, Arna (1902-1973)
    Bontemps, Arna (1902-1973)
    DRUMS AT DUSK.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: Macmillan, 1939. Hardcover first edition - The third novel by this writer closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance, although at the time this was written he was living in Chicago, where he was also influential in the Chicago Renaissance. Set in Saint Domingue in 1791 at the beginning of the Haitian rebellion, this focuses on the white, privileged people of French descent rather than on Toussaint L'Overture, the leader of the revolution. At the end, Toussaint is instrumental in helping his friend, the young French hero, Diron, escape with Celeste, the girl he loves. 226 pp. Surprisingly uncommon in the first edition.

    Condition: Near fine in black cloth with red endpapers (some toning to the pages, rubbing to the lettering on the spine, but a tight and straight copy).

    Book ID: 88903
    View cart More details Price: $125.00
  • Bracy, Ihsan
    IBO LANDING: An Offering of Short Stories

    Edition: First printing in wrappers, issued simultaneously with hardcover.

    Brooklyn: Cool Grove Press. 1998. First edition - First collection of short stories by this African American poet, described as a "celebratory testiment to the South's unbroken links to West Africa through Gullah ancestory and the heritage of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

    Condition: Fine in glossy illustrated wrappers.

    Book ID: 11130
    View cart More details Price: $14.00
  • THE CHANEYSVILLE INCIDENT. by Bradley. David.
    Bradley. David.
    THE CHANEYSVILLE INCIDENT.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: Harper & Row, (1981) dj. Hardcover first edition - African American author's 2nd novel, the story of a man's obsession with uncovering the truths about the history of his family - including the deaths of his slave great-grandfather and his moonshining father - and the rural Pennsylvania town they lived in. 432 pp. ISBN: 0-06-0104910.

    Condition: Fine in near fine dust jacket (price-clipped.)

    Book ID: 19669
    View cart More details Price: $30.00
  • RAINBOW ROUN MAH SHOULDER. by Bragg, Linda Beatrice Brown.
    Bragg, Linda Beatrice Brown.
    RAINBOW ROUN MAH SHOULDER.

    Edition: First printing, a trade paperback, not issued in hardcover.

    Chapel Hill, NC: Carolina Wren Press, 1984. First edition - The author's first prize-winning novel (following a book of poetry), the story of the self-discovery of a black woman in the South from 1915-1954. Published in an edition of only 1000 copies. Cover praise from Nikki Giovanni among others. ISBN: 0-932112-20x.

    Condition: Fair condition overall in illustrated wrappers (front cover is in poor condition with significant creasing and wear)

    Book ID: 74201
    View cart More details Price: $10.00
  • RATZ ARE NICE (PSP) by Braithwaite, Lawrence Christopher Patrick aka Ytzhak (1963 - 2008)
    Braithwaite, Lawrence Christopher Patrick aka Ytzhak (1963 - 2008)
    RATZ ARE NICE (PSP)

    Edition: First printing, a trade paperback original.

    Los Angeles: Alyson Books, (2000). SIGNED first edition - The second novel by this Afro-Canadian author, spoken-word artist, essayist, digital drummer, and short fiction writer. Dennis Cooper's blog notes that "Canadian literature has produced precious few genuine subversives, and Braithwaite black, gay, working-class, a drug user was perhaps the most subversive of them all. He wrote two of the most daring novels ever produced in this country: "Wigger" (winner of the Emerging Writers Competiton) and "Ratz Are Nice (PSP)."" Both books are composed in an invented patois, an ecstatic, deliberately confounding fusion of street slang, porn, typographical trickery, and song lyrics. Hip-hop, dub, heavy metal, reggae, and, above all, punk dictated his rhythms and sensibility. His priorities werent plot…

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    Los Angeles: Alyson Books, (2000). SIGNED first edition - The second novel by this Afro-Canadian author, spoken-word artist, essayist, digital drummer, and short fiction writer. Dennis Cooper's blog notes that "Canadian literature has produced precious few genuine subversives, and Braithwaite black, gay, working-class, a drug user was perhaps the most subversive of them all. He wrote two of the most daring novels ever produced in this country: "Wigger" (winner of the Emerging Writers Competiton) and "Ratz Are Nice (PSP)."" Both books are composed in an invented patois, an ecstatic, deliberately confounding fusion of street slang, porn, typographical trickery, and song lyrics. Hip-hop, dub, heavy metal, reggae, and, above all, punk dictated his rhythms and sensibility. His priorities werent plot and character, but speed and disorientation. He invited comparisons to transgressive writers like Cline and William S. Burroughs. SIGNED on the title page and very uncommon thus. Author notes and music, language and history references. 192 pp. ISBN: 1-555835546.

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    Condition: Fine in illustrated wrappers.

    Book ID: 82891
    View cart More details Price: $150.00
  • PARTING THE WATERS, AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS 1954-63. by Branch, Taylor.
    Branch, Taylor.
    PARTING THE WATERS, AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS 1954-63.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: Simon & Schuster, (1988.) dj. Hardcover first edition - A comprehensive guide to the early years of the civil rights movement, meticulously researched. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Notes, index. 1064 pp plus photographic plates. ISBN: 0-671-460978.

    Condition: Very good in very good dust jacket (price-clipped). A massive book, and rather uncommon in the hardcover first edition.

    Book ID: 51188
    View cart More details Price: $35.00
  • Branch, Taylor.
    PARTING THE WATERS, AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS 1954-63.

    Edition: 3rd printing.

    New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. dj. SIGNED hardcover - INSCRIBED on the first blank page and dated in 1989. Uncommon signed. A comprehensive guide to the early years of the civil rights movement, meticulously researched. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Notes, index. 1064 pp plus photographic plates. ISBN: 0-671-460978.

    Condition: Just about fine in a fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 36282
    View cart More details Price: $75.00
  • Brand, Dionne.
    AT THE FULL AND CHANGE OF THE MOON.

    Edition: First US printing.

    New York: Grove Press, 1999. dj. Hardcover first edition - Highly acclaimed novel by this Trinidadian-born poet and writer who now lives in Canada, and has been the recipient of the Governor-General's and other awards. The novel begins in Trinidad in 1824 with a secret society of slaves, headed by Marie Ursule, plotting a mass suicide as an act of revolt against slavery. ISBN: 0-8021-16493.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 19339
    View cart More details Price: $18.00
  • Brand, Dionne.
    AT THE FULL AND CHANGE OF THE MOON.

    Edition: Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. )

    New York: Grove Press, 1999. Highly acclaimed novel by this Trinidadian-born poet and writer who now lives in Canada, and has been the recipient of the Governor-General's and other awards. The novel begins in Trinidad in 1824 with a secret society of slaves, headed by Marie Ursule, plotting a mass suicide as an act of revolt against slavery.

    Condition: Fine (as new.)

    Book ID: 22856
    View cart More details Price: $20.00
  • Brathwaite, Edward Kamu; Davis, David Brion; Quarles, Benjamin and others
    DAEDULUS: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Volume 103, #2

    Boston: Spring 1974`. Issue on "SLAVERY, COLONIALISM AND RACISM" with contributions by the authors shown above and several others, including J. F. Ade, Ajayi, Nketia, Thomas Sowell, etc.

    Condition: Near fine in printed green and white wrappers (crease on corner of rear cover.)

    Book ID: 7281
    View cart More details Price: $16.00
  • WILD WOMEN IN THE WHIRLWIND: Afra-American Culture and the Contemporary Literary Renaissance. by Braxton, Joanne M. and Andree Nicola McLaughlin, editors. Foreword by Audre Lorde.
    Braxton, Joanne M. and Andree Nicola McLaughlin, editors. Foreword by Audre Lorde.
    WILD WOMEN IN THE WHIRLWIND: Afra-American Culture and the Contemporary Literary Renaissance.

    Edition: First UK printing - a large trade paperback.

    London: Serpent's Tail, (1990). First edition - "The first comprehensive collection of critical and theoretical essays to explore the literary and multi-cultural traditions of Black American women in many genres over a broad span of time." The book also includes a valuable." Contributors include. Angela Y. Davis, June Jordan, Gloria I. Joseph, David Ames Curtis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Robert J. Fehrenbach, Daphne Duval Harrison, Billie Jean Young, Regine Altagrace Latortue, Calvin Hernton, Barbara Smith, Joanne V. Gabbin, Nellie Y. McKay, Barbara Omolade, Vashti Crutcher Lewis, Barbara Christian, Zala Chandler, Rudolph P. Byrd, and Chinosole. The writers looked at range from Phillis Wheatley and Sojourner Truth through Regine Altagrace Latortue in Haiti, black lesbian fiction writers, Gwendolyn Brooks and…

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    London: Serpent's Tail, (1990). First edition - "The first comprehensive collection of critical and theoretical essays to explore the literary and multi-cultural traditions of Black American women in many genres over a broad span of time." The book also includes a valuable." Contributors include. Angela Y. Davis, June Jordan, Gloria I. Joseph, David Ames Curtis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Robert J. Fehrenbach, Daphne Duval Harrison, Billie Jean Young, Regine Altagrace Latortue, Calvin Hernton, Barbara Smith, Joanne V. Gabbin, Nellie Y. McKay, Barbara Omolade, Vashti Crutcher Lewis, Barbara Christian, Zala Chandler, Rudolph P. Byrd, and Chinosole. The writers looked at range from Phillis Wheatley and Sojourner Truth through Regine Altagrace Latortue in Haiti, black lesbian fiction writers, Gwendolyn Brooks and Zora Neale Hurston to Audre Lorde and Alice Walker and more. Frontispiece by Joanne Batiste, and illustrated pages at the beginning of each section. A selected bibliography of English-language works by Black women in the Americas from the 1970s to the present by Gale P. Jackson. Notes at the end of each essay, notes on contributors, index. xlix, 441 pp. ISBN: 1-852421800.

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    Condition: Fine (a new copy.)

    Book ID: 74856
    View cart More details Price: $23.50
  • SISTERS AND LOVERS. by Briscoe, Connie.
    Briscoe, Connie.
    SISTERS AND LOVERS.

    Edition: Later printing.

    New York: HarperCollins, (1994.) dj. SIGNED hardcover - INSCRIBED on the half title page "to Joe, Live your dreams" and dated in 1996. African American author's first novel, the story of 3 sisters who live in the same city - Washington, D. C. - but in very different worlds. ISBN: 0-06-0171162.

    Condition: Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 40471
    View cart More details Price: $28.00
  • A LONG WAY FROM HOME. by Briscoe, Connie.
    Briscoe, Connie.
    A LONG WAY FROM HOME.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: Harper Collins, (1999.) dj. Hardcover first edition - Set during the days of slavery and afterwards, this is a multi-generational novel of the lives of three African American women, born and raised as house slaves at Montpelier, the Virginia plantation of James Madison and his wife Dolley. Based on the life of the author's great-great grandmother. 348 pp. ISBN: 0-06-0172789.

    Condition: Very near fine in a like dustjacket.

    Book ID: 48053
    View cart More details Price: $18.00
  • Briscoe, Connie.
    BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: HarperCollins, 1996. dj. Hardcover first edition - African American author's second novel, set in the 1970's during the era of the fight for civil rights. ISBN: 0-06-017277-0.

    Condition: Fine in near fine dust jacket (price-clipped.)

    Book ID: 17112
    View cart More details Price: $18.00
  • Briscoe, Connie.
    BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: HarperCollins, 1996. dj. Hardcover first edition - African American author's second novel, set in the 1970's during the era of the fight for civil rights. ISBN: 0-06-017277-0.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 25685
    View cart More details Price: $20.00
  • SISTERS AND LOVERS. by Briscoe, Connie.
    Briscoe, Connie.
    SISTERS AND LOVERS.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: HarperCollins, (1994.) dj. Hardcover first edition - African American author's first novel, the story of 3 sisters who live in the same city - Washington, D. C. - but in very different worlds. ISBN: 0-06-0171162.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 24107
    View cart More details Price: $25.00
  • SISTERS AND LOVERS. by Briscoe, Connie.
    Briscoe, Connie.
    SISTERS AND LOVERS.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: HarperCollins, 1994. dj. Hardcover first edition - African American author's first novel, the story of 3 sisters who live in the same city - Washington, D. C. - but in very different worlds. ISBN: 0-06-0171162.

    Condition: Very good in very good dust jacket (previous owner's name, crease on dj flap)

    Book ID: 25755
    View cart More details Price: $16.00
  • PRIMER FOR BLACKS. by Brooks, Gwendolyn.
    Brooks, Gwendolyn.
    PRIMER FOR BLACKS.

    Edition: First printing.

    Chicago: The Black Position Press. (1980.). SIGNED first edition - Very uncommon first publication of this slim chapbook containing 'Three Preachments' - the title poem, a poem 'To Those of My Sisters Who Kept Their Naturals' and a prose piece 'Requiem Before Revival.' INSCRIBED on the first page by Brooks. 15 pp.

    Condition: Very good+ in light blue stapled wrappers - sunning to the edges of the covers, interior fine.

    Book ID: 46342
    View cart More details Price: $150.00
  • COMING UP DOWN HOME. by Brown, Cecil.
    Brown, Cecil.
    COMING UP DOWN HOME.

    Edition: First printing.

    Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, (1993.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A memoir of a Southern childhood (in the small farming village of Bolson, North Carolina) by this African American novelist, and of his struggle to free himself from his family's violent history. SIGNED by the author. 222 pp. ISBN: 0-88001-2935.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 67110
    View cart More details Price: $30.00
  • COMING UP DOWN HOME. by Brown, Cecil.
    Brown, Cecil.
    COMING UP DOWN HOME.

    Edition: First printing.

    Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, (1993.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A memoir of a Southern childhood (in the small farming village of Bolson, North Carolina) by this African American novelist, and of his struggle to free himself from his family's violent history. Warmly INSCRIBED by the author "Thanks for the inspiration for this book." and dated in 1994. 222 pp. ISBN: 0-88001-2935.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 88742
    View cart More details Price: $45.00
  • STAGOLEE SHOT BILLY. by Brown, Cecil.
    Brown, Cecil.
    STAGOLEE SHOT BILLY.

    Edition: First printing.

    Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. dj. Hardcover first edition - A book which attempts to uncover the truth behind the legend of Stack Lee and the incident that led to murder in 1895. Brown tracks the legend through variants of the song "from early ragtime versions of the '20s, to Mississippi John Hurt's rendition in the '30s, to John Lomax's 1940s prison versions, to interpretations by Lloyd Price, James Brown, and Wilson Pickett, right up to the hip-hop renderings of the '90s. Drawing upon the works of James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison, he describes the powerful influence of a legend bigger than literature, one whose transformation reflects changing views of black musical forms, and African Americans'…

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    Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. dj. Hardcover first edition - A book which attempts to uncover the truth behind the legend of Stack Lee and the incident that led to murder in 1895. Brown tracks the legend through variants of the song "from early ragtime versions of the '20s, to Mississippi John Hurt's rendition in the '30s, to John Lomax's 1940s prison versions, to interpretations by Lloyd Price, James Brown, and Wilson Pickett, right up to the hip-hop renderings of the '90s. Drawing upon the works of James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison, he describes the powerful influence of a legend bigger than literature, one whose transformation reflects changing views of black musical forms, and African Americans' altered attitudes toward black male identity, gender, and police brutality." Notes, bibliography, index. viii, 296 pp. ISBN: 0-674010566.

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    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 88784
    View cart More details Price: $24.50
  • CROSSING OVER JORDAN. by Brown, Linda Beatrice.
    Brown, Linda Beatrice.
    CROSSING OVER JORDAN.

    Edition: First printing.

    New York: Ballantine, (1995) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - Author's second novel (third book) one which follows the lives of four generations of African-American women from the end of the Civil War to the early 21st century as it explores the hidden effects of slavery. INSCRIBED on the front endpaper, and uncommon thus. Review copy with publisher's material laid in. 290 pp. ISBN: 0-345378571.

    Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket.

    Book ID: 88785
    View cart More details Price: $75.00
  • STERLING A. BROWN: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition. by [Brown, Sterling A.] Gabbin, Joanne V.
    [Brown, Sterling A.] Gabbin, Joanne V.
    STERLING A. BROWN: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition.

    Edition: First thus- a trade paperback.

    Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, (1994.). Originally published in 1985, this remains the most important study of the life and legacy of Sterling A. Brown, an African-American poet and scholar whose literary work presaged future generations of black authors and scholars. Leopold Senghor called him "an original militant of Negritude, a precursor of our movement" and in their foreword, John W. Blassingame and Henry Gates, Jr, describe his book of poetry "Southern Road" as the book which ended the Harlem Renaissance and moved black writing into the modernist lyrical mode. Notes, bibliography, index. xii, 245 pp. ISBN: 0-8139-15317.

    Condition: Fine in glossy illustrated wrappers (a new copy)

    Book ID: 56890
    View cart More details Price: $16.50
  • BLACK IS. by Brown, Turner, Jr.; Illustrations by Ann Weisman.
    Brown, Turner, Jr.; Illustrations by Ann Weisman.
    BLACK IS.

    Edition: Paperback original - first printing.

    New York: Grove Press, (1968). First edition - A book of aphorisms which take on the stereotypes of what being Black in the US is like. Published at the height of the civil rights movement, perhaps the saddest thing about this book is how much is still true now, fifty years later. " Black is being accused of causing trouble but always winding up as the casualties . .. Black is when folks say you've got to earn the rights the Constitution guaranteed you already had" and more. Each is printed in white lettering on black paper with an illustration by Ann Weisman on the facing page. Unpaginated.

    Condition: Very good (some rubbing to the edges of the covers) Uncommon in the first printing.

    Book ID: 74148
    View cart More details Price: $60.00
  • Brown, Wesley.
    DARKTOWN STRUTTERS.

    Edition: First printing, a trade paperback original, not issued in hardcover.

    New York: Cane Hill Press, (1994.). First edition - The author's second novel (he has also written screenplays, edited anthologies) - from the back cover: 'The story of Jim Crow, a remarkable black dancer, born in slavery, who performs in minstrel shows, South & North, during the furious times of pre- & post-Civil War America. His experiences, onstage and off, are a mix of applause with mob violence, of love & loss, played against the grim laughter of a black nation within a nation finding its way to an ever-elusive promised freedom. Touching, harrowing, inspiring, this is a unique novel of pride and courage. Cover praise from Russell Banks, among others - he called this 'a scary book, and mordantly funny, too'. 224 pp. ISBN: 0-943433-118.

    Condition: Fine in glossy illustrated wrappers.

    Book ID: 30905
    View cart More details Price: $18.00