"LET US MARCH ON 'TILL VICTORY IS WON": FIRST EDITION OF LANGSTON HUGHES' LAUGHING TO KEEP FROM CRYING, ELABORATELY INSCRIBED IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION TO A LOCAL NEW YORK POLITICIAN, RUTH BROWN PRICE, BY GRACE NAIL JOHNSON, THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND HARLEM RENAISSANCE PATRON, AND LANGSTON HUGHES

HUGHES, Langston. Laughing to Keep from Crying. New York: Henry Holt, (1952). Octavo, original half blue cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $6000.

First edition of Hughes' major second collection of short fiction, boldly inscribed in the year of publication by both civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson and Langston Hughes to local New York politician Ruth Brown Price: "To Ruth Brown Price, Over the years—'Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on 'till victory is won' James Weldon Johnson from Lift Every Voice and Sing. Grace Nail Johnson. Mar. 30—'52" and "For Ruth Brown Price—with the sincere regard of—Langston Hughes. New York, March 30, 1952."

"More than any other American writer, Langston Hughes brought African American culture and traditions into American literature" (Oxford Encyclopedia, 237). Laughing to Keep from Crying, his first collection of short fiction in nearly two decades, highlights the finest aspects of his work: his "simple, direct, style, the thirst for social criticism, the balance between satire and comedy, the basic, easily recognizable plot line, and the ability to create 'everyman' characters" (Ostram, Langston Hughes). Its title, drawn from a blues lyric, especially speaks to how "Hughes was galvanized by the music of his people, whether blues, jazz, or religious… his specific commitment to depicting and strengthening the African American heartbeat in America… gave him a place of central importance in 20th-century African American literature and American literature generally" (Gates and Higginbotham, African American Lives, 420-22). On publication, the stories in Laughing won immediate praise as "highly successful… each is the work of a 'writer' in the finest sense of the word" (New York Times). "First edition" stated on copyright page. Containing 24 stories, many appearing in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Crisis, Esquire and Story .

This copy is inscribed by both Grace Nail Johnson and Langston Hughes to Ruth Brown Price. Grace Nail Johnson was the wife of James Weldon Johnson, whose poem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," she quotes in her inscription. The poem "was performed for the first time by 500 school children in celebration of President Lincoln's Birthday on February 12, 1900 in Jacksonville, FL. The poem was set to music by Johnson's brother, John Rosamond Johnson, and soon adopted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as its official song. Today 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' is one of the most cherished songs of the African American Civil Rights Movement and is often referred to as the Black National Anthem" ("Black Culture Connection," PBS). It is sometimes forgotten, however, that Grace Nail Johnson was an activist in her own right and a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. "Grace Johnson was one of the most celebrated hostesses of the time, entertaining the African-American political and artistic elite. In addition, Mrs. Johnson worked in support of a number of important civil rights groups, fighting for equal job opportunities for men and women of color, and for equal pay for African-American workers" (Yale University Library). It was undoubtedly through this work that Johnson met Ruth Brown Price, co-leader of New York's 12th Assembly District in the early 1940s. Langston Hughes, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, almost certainly knew both women. Owner inscription on dedication page stating that this work "merely seconds the work" of "the younger poets I knew as fledglings." Owner signature on verso of dust jacket of Omotayo Aiyegbusi, sometimes called "the Picasso of Nigeria" (Ulrich de Balbian). Contemporary date on endpaper.

Book near-fine, with minor rubbing to extremities and a couple tiny bumps to edges. Dust jacket extremely good, with a bit of soiling mainly to rear panel and light wear to extremities. An outstanding inscribed copy with fascinating provenance.