African American History: New Visions

The literary works, music, art and films of African Americans have imagined and transformed the nation—from the poetry of Langston Hughes and the novels of Charles Chesnutt and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux to the science fiction of Octavia Butler and the art of Faith Ringgold. Bauman Rare Books is proud to offer this rare selection of African American works that also captures the sheer vigor of the Harlem Renaissance and the brilliance of Richard Wright, bell hooks, James Baldwin, Claude McKay, Toni Morrison and more. We invite you to join us in celebrating their exceptional visions.

Harlem Shadows

"THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE'S FIRST BOOK OF POETRY": FIRST EDITION OF CLAUDE MCKAY'S HARLEM SHADOWS, 1922

MCKAY, Claude. Harlem Shadows. New York, 1922.

First edition of the Jamaican-born McKay's groundbreaking volume of over 50 poems, together in book form for the first time, including his "calling card… the anthemic Shakespearean sonnet 'If We Must Die,' one of the landmark political poems of the 20th century," along with profoundly influential poems such as "The Harlem Dancer," "White City" and "The Lynching," a splendid copy in original cloth. $4200.

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Trial by Lynching

"A LEADING INSPIRATIONAL FORCE" OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

MCKAY, Claude. Trial by Lynching. Mysore, India, 1977.

First edition in English of McKay's virtually unknown collection of three early prose works, originally issued in Russian in 1925 and unpublished in English until 1977, increasingly heralded as his "first experiment in prose fiction" and "key to understanding McKay's literary and political development." $2200.

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