James Earl Jones, Voices and Silences

E-181: Easton Press. Very Good. 1993. Hardcover. Leather. 8vo. Published by The Easton Press, Norwalk, CT. 1993. 342 pgs. Signed by James Earl Jones on the limitation page. First Edition/First Printing. Bound in full leather with raised bands to the spine ends. Decorated gilt stamped boards and spine with all edges gilt. Silk moiree endsheets with silk bookmark sewn into the binding. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. Easton bookplate present to the front pastedown. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. Celebrated actor Jones, writing with Niven ( Carl Sandburg: A Biography ) , has produced a compelling memoir. Raised by his hardworking grandfather and storytelling grandmother, six-year-old James began to stutter when the family moved from Mississippi, where he was born in 1931, to Michigan. Virtually mute for the next eight years, he recaptured speech by reciting poetry and prose. Jones reconnected with his estranged actor father during his journeyman years in Manhattan theater; in the 1950s he blossomed in the "democracy of the frontier" that was off-Broadway. He offers lively and nuanced reflections on his great and sometimes controversial parts, which include, on stage, Paul Robeson, and on film: the title role in Othello , Lennie in Of Mice and Men , Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope and Troy Maxson in Fences. While Jones concentrates more on his professional than on his personal life, he also discusses his complicated multiracial heritage and his two marriages. He ends with tender thoughts about the almost spiritual richness of life on his New York farm and the joy he takes in his young son. As his career and his memoirs verify, Jones's lifelong struggle with language has produced some lasting words. EB; 9.3 X 6.2 X 1.5 inches; 419 pages; Signed by Author .