The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer

College Park, Maryland: McGrath Publishing Company, 1969. Hardcover. Near Fine. Facsimile edition. Octavo. 311pp. Blue cloth lettered in silver. A little soiling on the boards, faint dampstain on bottom inner corner of pages, else very good or better, issued without dustwrapper. Micheaux's first book, a self-published novel with autobiographical elements. Micheaux was a successful farmer who was defrauded by his in-laws and lost his land. He eventually took to writing black pulp fiction. Always a savvy and persuasive entrepreneur, he also realized the growing potential of motion pictures (and the underdeveloped African-American market for them) and in 1914 he wrote, produced and directed the first two of his many films with all-black casts. Financing the films himself and handling almost all aspects of production and marketing personally, Micheaux pioneered self-reliant black cinema and created an entire industry based on the belief that film could be an entertainment medium for blacks with complete independence from the constraints and pre-conceptions of Hollywood. Up to his death in 1951 Micheaux continued to write novels, often adapting his works for the screen.