A DIFFERENT DRUMMER

Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1962. First printing. Very good plus in like dust jacket.. First edition of William Melvin Kelley's first novel, the story of an exodus of the Black population from a fictional Southern US American state after a traumatic event. Tucker Caliban's family suffered for generations at the hands of the racist townspeople of fictional Sutton, so he literally salts the earth and leaves town - the rest of the Black population follows. Publisher Jon Butler, quoted in THE GUARDIAN, observes that Kelley's choice to tell the story of A DIFFERENT DRUMMER through the voices of the white populace, apparently clueless as to why they were left behind, is "a scorching indictment of the establishment's inability to engage with inequality that still speaks to us today, particularly in the age of Black Lives Matter." 8.25'' x 5.25''. Original tan cloth-backed black boards with black spine lettering. Original unclipped ($3.95) black, white, and gold dust jacket designed by Al Nagy. 224 pages. Jacket with light edgewear, a bit of chipping to corners and spine ends; a couple mild scuffs to rear. Binding with slight edgewear, tiny ding to lower edge of front board; a hint of sunning to top edge. Interior sharp and clean.