Not Without Laughter Frontispiece portrait by amy spingarn; printed on handmade paper by dard hunter. 8vo - 1930

New York and London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. First edition. Frontispiece portrait by Amy Spingarn; printed on handmade paper by Dard Hunter. 8vo. Printed cloth covered board. Title-page printed in brown and black, top edge stained blue, light sunning to spine with abrasion near title, slightly cocked, Sullivan's bookplate to the front pastedown. First edition. Frontispiece portrait by Amy Spingarn; printed on handmade paper by Dard Hunter. 8vo. Inscribed on the ffep: "To Noel - this novel of a people he understands; with my regard and affection - Sincerely, Langston. San Francisco, May 23, 1932."

In March 1932 Noël Sullivan, a wealthy aspiring concert singer and a patron to liberal and artistic causes, sent Hughes a note of his admiration with an invitation to visit him in San Fransisco. Sullivan, whose housekeeper Eulah Pharr had friends in common with Hughes, had recently performed one of Hughes's poems in concert, set to music by John Alden Carpenter. Hughes stayed with Sullivan from May 15 through 23 1932 while on a lecture tour, and the two developed a very close friendship. He presumably gave Sullivan this volume as an expression of his gratitude before leaving for Portland and Seattle, after which point he returned to California and stayed at Sullivan's farm in Carmel until June 4th, when he inscribed a couple more volumes to Sullivan.

"The man and all he stood for endeared him to Hughes, and for a quarter of a century he was the poet's most trusted confidant. [...] as close a friend as any relative Hughes ever had..." (Berry, Faith, Before & Beyond Harlem: A Biography of Langston Hughes, p. 149-150). Sullivan wrote to Hughes as he was heading out of town: " 'Without any possible disloyalty to the great people of your race that it has been my privilege to know...I want to assure you that never has anyone of them inspired in me the unqualified regard and admiration that I feel for you. Indeed, had I been told ten days ago that your integrity (and by that word I think I mean more than is implied in its customary usage) existed anywhere - I should have been skeptical... The contact with you has extended immeasurably for me a sense of tenderness toward everyone" (Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, Vol. I, pp. 239-240). Sullivan helped sustain Hughes with occasional financial gifts, he hosted him on most of his visits to California, often gave Hughes the use of his farm in Carmel, where Hughes wrote his first collection of short stories, The Ways of White Folks (1934), which was dedicated to Sullivan.

The first traces of one of the most significant relationships of Hughes's life.