Song of Solomon by Morrison, Toni; [Styron, William] - 1977

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977 First edition. Signed by Morrison on the title page. Personal copy of William Styron, with his embossed ownership stamp to a front flyleaf. Publisher's black cloth, lettered in blind and gilt; in the original yellow pictorial dust jacket designed by R. D. Scudellari, lettered in black and maroon with black wing decorations. Fine book; unclipped dust jacket, with just some light sunning to the spine, else fine. A superb copy. This copy of Song of Solomon comes from the library of author William Styron and bears his embossed ownership stamp on a front flyleaf. Both close friends of fellow author James Baldwin, both Styron and Morrison wrote about African American history, identity and culture during the Jim Crow Era in the American South. Song of Solomon is Morrison's third novel and the first novel by an African-American author to be a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection since Richard Wright's Native Son (1940). Specifically, it creates a "magical world out of four generations of black life in America" through the story of Macon "Milkman Dead, Jr. An extremely powerful novel, Song of Solomon soars, as Reynolds Price lauds in his 1977 New York Times review, "on the wide slow wings of human sympathy, well-informed wit and the rare plain power to speak wisdom to other human beings… Few Americans know, and can say, more than [Morrison] has in this wise and spacious novel.". Signed by Author. 1st Edition.. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Dust Jacket Included.