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The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.
Boston: Sherman, French & Company, 1912. 8vo (8.125” x 5.5”), gilt burgundy cloth. [vi], 207 pp. Early ownership inscription in pencil at ffep: “Geo. M. Smith 1030 Toren St Grand Rapids, Mich.” CONDITION: Good, spine cocked and sunned, spine lettering faded, head and foot of spine chipped, some wear to extremities, offsetting from newspaper clipping? to front paste-down and ffep, volume tight and sound. First edition of James Weldon Johnson’s landmark novel about a mixed-race man navigating life in post-Reconstruction America. It was published anonymously and is narrated as if an autobiography, though the work is entirely fictional. It follows the unnamed protagonist, a talented musician, as he moves between cities while pursuing a career playing ragtime. After traveling to Europe, he returns to the South, where he witnesses a lynching, an experience that profoundly shakes his understanding of race. Having spent much of his life moving between racial worlds, the protagonist decides to reject his Black heritage and pass as white. He abandons musical ambitions, and moves to the North, achieves financial stability, and marries a white woman. The story ends tragically, the “ex-colored man” coming to regret his decision to abandon his heritage and, with it, the opportunity to uplift his race. The anonymous 1912 publication of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man attracted little positive critical attention and sales were weak. However, in 1927 the novel was republished under the author’s own name, and garnered widespread acclaim. Today it is widely considered Johnson’s best literary effort and a defining work of the Harlem Renaissance. REFERENCES: Blockson Commented 56; Weinstein 194; Blockson 4716–18 (citing 1927 Garden City Pub. Co edition, 1927 New American Library edition, 1960 Hill & Wang edition).
Item #10502
Price: $6,500.00
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