"MY SECOND LIFE—OF WHICH, LIKE A CAT, I HOPE I HAVE NINE": SCARCE PRESENTATION FIRST EDITION OF I WONDER AS I WANDER, WONDERFULLY INSCRIBED BY LANGSTON HUGHES

HUGHES, Langston. I Wonder as I Wander. An Autobiographical Journey. New York, Toronto: Rinehart, (1956). Octavo, original gray cloth, original dust jacket. $6000.

First edition of one of Hughes' "wisest and most informative books," a scarce presentation copy of the second and final volume of his autobiography, warmly inscribed by him, "For the Abbotts—my second life—of which, like a cat, I hope I have nine—Sincerely, Langston Hughes, Linwood, January 10, 1958."

Langston Hughes remains "one of America's most influential voices… his value to the development of African American and American art and culture has been inestimable" (Tidwell and Raga, Montage of a Dream, 1). As one of his biographers observed, in "a career which covered four decades, in which he tried every literary genre, he wrote some of the most revolutionary works by any American writer of his generation" (Faith Berry). In I Wonder as I Wander, Hughes' second and final autobiography, he vividly recalls the turbulent 1930s and his travels across the globe, from Harlem to Russia, to Cuba, Haiti, Japan, and Spain during its Civil War. Hughes began work on it in July 1954 and, after a short break, returned to it in May 1955. That November he "delivered the manuscript, amounting to 789 pages, of I Wonder as I Wander. He had weighed it as carefully as if it were his newborn baby—seven pounds, eight ounces… a job well done." In 1956 "the happy publication of I Wonder as I Wander… seemed to lift a staggering burden from Langston's shoulders" (Rampersad, Life, 249-61). "An immensely interesting book" (New Yorker), I Wonder as I Wander was praised by noted author Amiri Baraka as "among the wisest and most informative books to issue from Langston's pen." First edition, first printing: colophon with circled "R" on copyright page. See Blockson 5499 (later edition).

Only light rubbing and edge-wear to dust jacket. A scarce about-fine inscribed copy.