The Booker T. Washington Papers [9 volumes (of 14)]

Urbana [Illinois]: University of Illinois Press, (1972-1980). 9 Volumes, i.e. Vols. 1-9 (of 14). xl, 469pp + plates; xl, 557pp + plates; xxx, 618pp + plates; xxx, 593pp; xxviii, 747pp; xxx, 661pp + plates; xxviii, 574pp; xxx, 625pp + plates; and xxxii, 747pp. 8vos. Publisher's beige cloth; pictorial dust jackets. Edges lightly foxed; brief wear, spine dulling, and/or small loss to first two dust jackets; overall, very good.

First nine volumes of the collected speeches and outgoing and incoming letters of Booker T. Washington (1856?-1915), educator, orator, civic leader, and author of the critically acclaimed autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901).

The volumes cover the years 1860 to 1908 and include Washington's autobiographical writings: Vol. 1. The Autobiographical Writings, Vol. 2. 1860-89, Vol. 3. 1889-95, Vol. 4. 1895-98, Vol.5. 1899-1900, Vol.6. 1901-2, Vol.7. 1903-4, Vol.8. 1904-6, and Vol.9. 1906-8. Four additional volumes, covering the end of Washington's life, and an index volume were subsequently published.

"[Washington] tirelessly preached an upbeat, optimistic view of the future of his fellow blacks. 'When persons ask me,' he said once, 'how, in the midst of what sometimes seem hopelessly discouraging conditions, I can have such faith in the future of my race in this country, I remind them of the wilderness through which and out of which a good Providence has already led us.' When he also wrote that he would 'permit no man, no matter what his color, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him,' he was undoubtedly sincere. His message to his fellow blacks that hard work, good citizenship, patient fortitude in the face of adversity, and love would ultimately conquer the hatred of the white man was appealing to the majority of whites of his time and foreshadowed the similar message of a later leader, Martin Luther King, Jr." (ANB)