"THE SUREST WAY TO LIFT UP OURSELVES IS TO LIFT UP SOME ONE ELSE": RARE FIRST EDITION OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON'S BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED FIRST BOOK, DAILY RESOLVES, 1896

WASHINGTON, Booker T. Daily Resolves. London and New York: Ernest Nister and E.P. Dutton, 1896. Small octavo (3-3/4 by 5-3/4 inches), original half white cloth gilt, chromolithographic boards; pp. [18]. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $4200.

First edition of Booker T. Washington's first book, an exquisite, richly illustrated volume published while he was emerging as a prominent African-American leader, with six double-page chromolithographed plates of his inspirational maxims.

Throughout his life and work, Booker T. Washington "tirelessly preached an upbeat, optimistic view of the future of his fellow Blacks. 'When persons ask me,' he said once, 'how, in the midst of what sometimes seem hopelessly discouraging conditions, I can have such faith in the future of my race in this country, I remind them of the wilderness through which and out of which a good Providence has already led us'" (ANB). Washington, who early studied at a Baptist seminary, never became a clergyman but infused his students and staff at Tuskegee University with principles of faith even in the midst of the violent Jim Crow South. His words in this small, lovely volume—penned during his earliest work as an educational reformer and published as he earned recognition through national lecture tours—soar with an eloquence and impress with a moral urgency rivaling that heard from any pulpit. This exquisite chromolithographed volume, featuring a color frontispiece and leaves richly printed in red, blue and gold inks, evokes the aura of an illuminated manuscript. Harlan 14, xi.

Mere trace of soiling to bright gilt-stamped boards. Fine condition.