"FOR ONE WHO HAS BEEN IN MARSEILLE—THIS SOUVENIR OF THE DOCKS": PRESENTATION FIRST EDITION OF CLAUDE MCKAY'S LANDMARK SECOND NOVEL, BANJO, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY HIM

McKAY, Claude. Banjo. A Story without a Plot. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1929. Octavo, original half black cloth, orange and navy boards, decorative endpapers, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of McKay's major second novel, the controversial Harlem Renaissance work, set in the French port of Marseille, that marked "an important milestone" for McKay and African American literature, an exceptional presentation copy inscribed by him, "For one who has been in Marseille—this souvenir of the Docks, Claude McKay."

The Jamaican-born McKay "was one of the most prominent and militant voices for racial equality in the early years of the Harlem Renaissance" (Bader, African-American Writers, 274). His "importance as a pioneering African American writer lay not only in his specific artistic achievements, but also and more broadly in his ability… to claim for African Americans a voice and a role in the unfolding drama of world history and literature" (Smith, African American Writers, 242). Written while he lived in Europe and North Africa for nearly 12 years, "it is possible to read Banjo as a roman a clef portraying friends and acquaintances from McKay's time living in Marseille, particularly in the summer of 1926 and the spring of 1928" (Hayes, Practice of Diaspora, 189). Prized as well for capturing "a pan-African world community that included the Senegalese dockers and Algerian longshoremen" (New Yorker), Banjo "marks an important milestone… McKay's literary oeuvre is a unique contribution to the global discourse of black writing. It inaugurated two significant black cultural movements, the Harlem Renaissance in the United States and Negritude in Europe" (Ramesh & Rani, Claude McKay, 1, 112). "First Edition" stated on copyright page with code "C-D" indicating publication in March 1929. With dust jacket design by Aaron Douglas. Blockson 4736. This distinctive presentation copy is inscribed by McKay to Ida Louise Lassiter, whose name and address, in an unidentified hand, appear above McKay's inscription on the front pastedown. Lassiter, a "prominent Harlem school teacher," lived at 676 St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, in close proximity to the historic Harlem YMCA where McKay once lived, along with fellow writers such as Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison (New York Age).

Text fresh, rear inner paper hinge starting but sound, faint soiling to boards, light edge-wear, toning to spine of book; small closed tear to upper front panel minimally affecting lettering, light edge-wear to spine ends of colorful dust jacket. A desirable inscribed copy in extremely good condition.