Search Results: AFRICAN AMERICAN from Eilenberger Rare Books, LLC

New York: Philosophical Library, [1966]. 120 pages. plus frontispiece facsimile. Illustrated with full-page drawings by Claude Howell (printed with the text). Original cloth. [21.5 cm.] About fine in very good plus dust jacket. Some very faint foxing to endpapers due to contact with original dust jacket. Jacket is bright, but shows light rubbing, traces of faint foxing, and a tiny closed tear to rear panel. FIRST EDITION.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1927. xvii, 116 pages. Original quarter black cloth over decorative paper-covered boards. 24.5 x 16.5 cm. A near fine copy in very good dust jacket. Minor rubbing to the spine; internally clean and partially unopened. The jacket has several tiny chips, a few traces of soiling, and a small internal repair to the head of the spine panel with archival tissue. FIRST EDITION. #151 OF 200 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. A collection of African American stories collected by Edward Clarkson Leverett Adams (1876-1946), a physician from Columbia, South Carolina, at his plantation on the Congaree River. Of all the white authors of his era who recorded African American stories, writes folklore historian Robert G. O'Meally: "No others rendered scenes from black life with his control of dramatic tension; none presented scenes so true to the blacks' own sense of reality and poetic idiom. . . . No whites appear in this work, except as rare background figures… Read More

[Durham: Press of the Seeman Printery, 1920.] 229 pages, plus frontispiece and 11 full page plates from photographs. Most of the plates are portraits with the remainder depicting Durham businesses. Original maroon cloth lettered in gilt. 20.5 x 14 cm. The cloth shows light speckling along the edges of the boards and spine; spine is just a little faded. Margins of some of the plates and facing pages show minor foxing, not affecting images or text. Several leaves with a tiny marginal pinhole (signs of a prior enclosure). Still, a very good, tight copy of a work that is seldom found thus. FIRST EDITION. John Merrick (1859-1919) was one of the leading figures of Durham's "Black Wall Street" in the early 20th century. Born a slave in Sampson County, he worked as a brick mason and then a barber before founding the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1898. As president, he made it "the largest black business in the United States. With its attendant enterprises, the firm earned… Read More

Raleigh, N.C.: Alfred Williams & Co., [printed by Bynum Printing Co.], 1925. 314 pages, plus six full-page photographic plates. The front free endpaper is printed with a copyright notice on the recto and prior appearance notice on verso. Original olive-green cloth with gilt spine lettering. 20 x 15 cm. There was a variant in blue cloth, priority unknown. A good copy in good plus dust jacket. Moderate stains to both covers along and near the joints. The binding is a bit fragile internally (cracked between most gatherings), however, all contents are holding well (stitching is intact) and the hinges are sound. Foxing to the pages facing the plates, but only faint marginal foxing to the plates themselves. Jacket shows tiny tears to the head of the spine panel and upper corners, a short (2 cm) closed tear at the bottom of the front hinge, and a pinhead-sized hole near the top of the spine panel. FIRST EDITION. Joseph Lacy Seawell (1869-1936), a native of Raleigh, was an attorney and for many years the… Read More

London: Smith, Elder, and Co., [printed by Alfred Webb, Dublin], 1861. xiv, 453 pages, plus frontispiece portrait, being a mounted original albumen photograph of John Brown. Original embossed brown cloth. 17 x 12 cm. Professionally rebacked in brown cloth with the lower half of original spine laid down; original endpapers retained. Tiny marginal chip to one leaf of the table of contents and tiny tears to another, in neither case approaching the text, else very good. Minor marginal foxing to the frontispiece, not affecting the photograph; faint foxing to the title page and a few scattered spots elsewhere, but a clean copy overall. House in custom-made cloth slipcase with gilt-lettered green morocco spine label. Early bookseller's ticket (John Mowat, Dublin) on rear pastedown. Signature of Edward K. Dunham on front free endpaper, dated 1883. This was perhaps Edward Kellogg Dunham (1860-1922), a Harvard-trained pathologist from New York. FIRST EDITION. One of the earliest biographies of the legendary… Read More

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, [1954]. xv, [1], 228 pages. Original cloth. [20.9 cm.] A very good plus copy in good plus dust jacket. A few very faint spots to cloth; bright and clean internally. Jacket has small chip to head of spine (1.5 cm deep), short closed tear and associated crease to front panel, and some light wear to extremities with minor loss. FIRST EDITION. Foreword by Owen J. Roberts. An influential examination of school segretation based on a lengthy study initiated by the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Advancement of Education. The book was released to the public on May 16, 1954, a day before the Supreme Court issued its decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. However, the Justices were given advance copies some time beforehand, and may have read the work during the course of deliberations. Chief Justice Warren later stated that the court consulted the book while writing the decision in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (a.k.a.… Read More

Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, [1989]. xxviii pages; 226 photographs reproduced on [172] leaves; [2] pages, plus colophon. Original maroon cloth with silver spine lettering. 26 cm (square quarto). A fine copy in fine publisher's matching cloth slipcase. FIRST EDITION. #207 of 375 numbered copies signed by Welty. An additional 26 signed, lettered copies were issued, as well as a deluxe, leather-bound issue of 52 copies. The definitive collection of Welty's acclaimed photographic work. Most of the photographs were taken in Mississippi during the Depression when Welty traveled the state as a writer for the W.P.A. The book includes an interview with Welty about her photography conducted especially for this edition by the editors. Foreword by Reynolds Price. Polk, “Eudora Welty: A Bibliography“, A36:1b.�

Philadelphia: C. Sherman & Son, Printers, 1862. 26 pages. Original printed wraps. 24 x 15 cm. Multiple chips to the wraps, not affecting printed matter; spine worn and split for 3 cm at top and 6 cm at base, but wraps holding well. Wraps also show a few creases, toning, and several small spots. Small chip to base of gutter of title page and to upper corner of the same; other corners slightly worn; a few marginal creases and minuscule edge tears. Excepting a minor spot on the final page, the text is clean. Good only. FIRST EDITION. Charles Ingersoll was a former Pennsylvania Congressman who had long been critical of abolitionism. His "Letter to a Friend in a Slave State," published in 1862, criticized the Union war effort and called for compromise and reconciliation with the South. In this pamphlet, Russell argues against Ingersoll and insists that the country will only be reunified after the military defeat of the Confederacy. Though raised in Virginia, Martin Russell Thayer… Read More

New York: Bobbs-Merrill, [circa 1934; c.r. 1933]. 251 pages. Illustrated with 70 full-page reproductions of photographs (including the frontispiece, all printed with the text). Original red cloth with black spine lettering. 22 x 16 cm. Very good plus in very good or better dust jacket. Light soiling to top edge; free endpapers partially tanned; a little marginal soiling or foxing to the half-title; marginal smudge to one plate, not affecting image. Old gift inscription on the front free endpaper. The jacket has some light edgewear and a few tiny tears, with a few old tape reinforcements on the verso, and some rather faint soiling. Still an attractive example. The binding is sharp, the text and plates are clean, and the jacket is bright with none of the usual fading to the spine panel. EARLY TRADE EDITION AND THE FIRST BY THIS PUBLISHER. Uses the same sheets as the first trade edition published by Robert Ballou (first printing,1933; second, 1934) with a new title page.� Ballou's imprint is… Read More

New York: Robert O. Ballou, [1933]. 341 pages. 90 full-page, hand-pulled photogravures (including the frontispiece, all reckoned in the pagination). Lacking the extra, laid-in photogravure, being a duplicate of one of the images in the book, that is found with most copies. Early full vellum with gilt spine and cover lettering and gilt centerpiece on the front cover. 29 x 22 cm. Near fine. The photogravures are all in excellent condition. The text shows some very faint offsetting from the plates throughout, and a half dozen or so of the text pages show moderate foxing. Tissue guards, laid-in throughout, appear to be recent replacements. Housed in a plain linen slipcase, evidently of the same vintage as the binding. FIRST EDITION. #44 of 350 COPIES SIGNED BY JULIA PETERKIN AND DORIS ULMANN. One of the most celebrated American photobooks, “Roll, Jordan Roll “provides a stunning portrait of rural African American life in the low country of South Carolina. Most of the photographs were taken at… Read More

New York: Prentice Hall, [1987]. xii, 308 pages, plus eight double-sided plates. Original quarter cloth and boards. 22 x 15 cm. Fine in near fine dust jacket. Slight bump to the spine panel of the dust jacket. FIRST EDITION.