"TEARS OF ANGUISH… A ROAR OF PROTEST": FIRST EDITION OF BLUES FOR MISTER CHARLIE, PRESENTATION-ASSOCIATION COPY INSCRIBED BY JAMES BALDWIN TO HIS CLOSE FRIEND AND FELLOW AUTHOR RICHARD LONG

BALDWIN, James. Blues For Mister Charlie. New York: Dial, 1964. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $3200.

Presentation first edition of Baldwin's controversial play based on the murder of Emmett Till, inscribed by Baldwin on the dedication page to his close friend and fellow author Richard Long: "For Richard Long, Merci pour ta gentillesse, Jimmy Baldwin." Together with a scarce copy of Long's 1975 chapbook, Ascending and Other Poems.

James Baldwin's Blues began its controversial life on stage and in book form when it opened at New York's ANTA theatre in April 1964. "The play was based partly on the murder of Emmett Till, a black youth killed in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at white woman. In a subsequent trial, Till's murders were acquitted. The play also made reference to Medger Evers, the civil rights leader slain in front of his own home on June 12, 1964" (Shuman, Great American Writers, 113). Dedicated to Medgar Evers, along with his widow and children, and the "memory of the dead children of Birmingham," Baldwin's electrifying drama earned high critical praise for the "fires of fury in its belly, tears of anguish in its eyes and a roar of protest in its throat… Blues for Mister Charlie brings eloquence and conviction to one of the momentous themes of our era" (New York Times). First edition, first printing: with no statement of edition or printing on the copyright page. Containing Baldwin's prefatory "Notes for Blues." Dust jacket design by Bernard Brussel-Smith. Blockson 4896.

Baldwin was close friends with Philadelphia-born Richard Long, who met him in France on a Fulbright in 1957. Baldwin would often visit Long in Atlanta, where Long taught at Atlanta University (where he founded the African American Studies program) and later at Emory University. Long was considered a public intellectual who was described as one of the "great pillars of African American arts and culture." Long's many books include Black Americana (1985), The Black Tradition in American Dance (1989), African Americans: A Portrait (1993), Grown Deep: Essays on the Harlem Renaissance (1998), and the 1975 volume of poems included here, Ascending and Other Poems.

Long's scarce chapbook near-fine with mild toning to spine, staples rusted but intact, museum ink stamp to title page (where the volume was likely on sale). Book about-fine, price-clipped dust jacket with light rubbing and creasing to extremities, shallow chip near spine head, clean and very good. A desirable inscribed association copy.