July 2022 Catalogue

Black Americana and Abolition – 40 – Bauman Rare Books - July 2022 Inscribed In The Year Of Publication By Pauli Murray 67. MURRAY, Pauli. Proud Shoes. The Story of an American Family. New York, 1956. Octavo, original gray cloth, dust jacket. $4200. First edition of Murray’s powerful history of her family, inscribed in the year of publication: “November 25, 1956, For Mr. andMrs. R—W—with good wishes—Cordially—Pauli Murray,” in very scarce dust jacket. “At the forefront of social change in the U.S…. Pauli Murray achieved prominence as a lawyer, poet, educator and minister” (ANB). “Years of historical research went into Murray’s first major literary publication, Proud Shoes.” In it she chronicles the extraordinary history and legacy of her family, including her grandmother, born enslaved, and her grandfather, a freed Black man wounded as a Union soldier in the Civil War. Her account looks “unflinchingly at issues of racism, sexism and miscegenation… and it has been read as a microcosm of African American history” (Oxford History, 516). First edition, first printing, with code “I-F”. Book fine; small chip to upper front corner of very scarce near-fine dust jacket. “One Of The First Pieces Of Historical Writing Devoted To The Experiences Of African Americans” (Quarles) 68. NELL, William C. Services of Colored Americans, In the Wars of 1776 and 1812. Boston, 1851. Slim octavo, disbound. $3800. First edition of Nell’s groundbreaking history of African American service and sacrifice in the Revolution, issued in fury over the Fugitive Slave Act—one of the “most useful and important histories of African Americans written in the Civil War era” (ANB). Black rebellion was fundamentally substantiated by “works recovering the martial history of Black Men” (Sinha, 452). Chief among these was Nell’s Services. Nell was esteemed for “careful scholarship and innovative use of oral sources in his works… [making] them the most useful and important histories of African Americans written in the Civil War era” (ANB). Without selfwrappers, often lacking. Small library inkstamps to title page, first text page. A fine copy.

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