The Journey of John W. Mosley

Philadelphia: Quantum Leap Publisher, 1992. Hardcover. Near Fine/near fine. 192 p.: illustrations; 28 cm. Black cover with gilt spine title. Illustrated dust jacket. John W. Mosley (1907-1969) was a self-taught photographer who spent most of his adult life in Philadelphia. His subjects included national figures such as Duke Ellington, Wilt Chamberlain, Paul Robeson, Billy Eckstine, Billie Holiday, Martin Luther King Jr., Marian Anderson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and President Richard Nixon, among others. His photographs featured locations overlooked outside the Black community, such as Nixon's Grand Theatre and the Earle Theatre in Philadelphia, and Chicken Bone Beach in Atlantic City. Mosley was the staff photographer at the Pyramid Club, a center of African-American culture and life in Philadelphia, and was also one the first Black syndicated photographers, frequently published in African-American newspapers such as The Philadelphia Tribune, the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, and The Pittsburgh Courier; his work also appeared in Jet magazine. Book is in Near Fine Condition: small scrape at upper edge of front endpapers; otherwise, clean and tight. Dust jacket is in Near Fine Condition: slightly rubbed; clean and bright.