Black Americana and Abolition – 30 – Bauman Rare Books - July 2022 “The Quintessential African American Writer” (Story): Very Scarce First Edition Of Lonely Crusade, 1947, Inscribed By Chester Himes 47. HIMES, Chester. Lonely Crusade. New York, 1947. Octavo, original russet cloth, dust jacket. $3200. First edition of Himes’ still controversial second book, inscribed: “All best Chester Himes, Venelles France,” in original dust jacket. In his lifetime Himes, who died in 1984, was “more honored in Europe than intheU.S.”andspentmost ofhisadult years inMexico, France and Spain (New York Times). Lonely Crusade set a standard for how racism became “the dominant subject” of his works (Milliken, 306). Set in L.A. during WWII, it tells of the struggles faced by its protagonist, a col lege- educated Black man, who battles racism as recruiter for an aircraft company and labor organizer. Book fine, small closed tear to lower spine of otherwise colorful about-fine dust jacket. Facts Of Lynchings “Burn Like Acid,” Turning “Cold Legal Points Into Points Of Flame” (Llewellyn) 48. HOUSTON, Charles Hamilton and LLEWELLYN, Karl. Memorandum Brief for the Attorney General of the United States. New York, 1933. Slim octavo, original tan self-wrappers. $2800. First NAACP edition of a seminal work chiefly authored by Charles Houston, “one of the key champions of American racial justice,” triggered by the 1933 Tuscaloosa lynchings of young Black men, contending the federal government already has the “power necessary to protect people against lynching… based on the 14th Amendment and Reconstruction-era civil rights laws.” In the violent summer of 1933, amidst ongoing furor over the “Scottsboro Boys,” three young Black men from Tuscaloosa, Dan Pippen, Jr., A.T. Harden and Elmore Clarke, were shot in a policeassisted lynching (two died, one was wounded) after being falsely charged in the rape and murder a white woman. Charles Houston, Dean of Howard University Law School, drafted this 47-page Brief together with fellow Black attorneys Leon Ransom and Edward Lovett, contending the “federal government had the power necessary to protect people against lynching… based on the 14th Amendment and Reconstruction-era civil rights laws” (Waldrep, 82-3). NAACP original printed blue slip (3-1/2 by 5-inches) tippedto front self-wrapper. Fine condition.
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