FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF RAYNAL'S REVOLUTION OF AMERICA, 1781, THAT PROMPTED PAINE'S FAMOUS 1782 LETTER… TO ABBÉ RAYNAL
RAYNAL, Abbé [Guillaume Thomas François]. Revolution of America. London, 1781.
First edition in English, simultaneous with the first French edition, of Raynal's provocative work that dismissed the American Revolution as a "temporary upheaval," triggering Paine's fierce reply in his Letter… to Abbé Raynal, where he heralded the American cause as "the first war to be based on principle in the history of the world." $1400.
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"'FAITH' IN THE FIGHT OF BLACK MEN FOR FREEDOM"
WRIGHT, Richard. Bright and Morning Star. New York, 1941.
First separate edition of one of Wright's earliest and most provocative looks at "racial injustice and violence in the American South," based on rumors he heard as a young boy about a Black woman who "avenged the murder of her husband" by shooting the white men responsible, a handsome copy in fragile original wrappers. $950.
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"COURTS FEEL IT IS NOT THEIR BUSINESS TO CONCERN THEMSELVES WITH THE CAUSES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS. BUT IT IS THE BUSINESS OF AMERICANS"
MURRAY, Pauli and KEMPTON, Murray. Rights of Man Are Worth Defending. New York, 1942.
Second edition of this civil rights pamphlet, published the same year as the first, including an early printing (preceding the first separate publication) of Pauli Murray and Murray Kempton's important article on the improper conviction of Odell Walker for murder by an all-white jury selected from poll-tax payers. $350.
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