"ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT AND MILITANT VOICES FOR RACIAL EQUALITY IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE": FIRST EDITION OF CLAUDE MCKAY'S IMPORTANT SECOND NOVEL, BANJO

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. $6000.

First edition of McKay's second novel, a controversial Harlem Renaissance novel that marked "an important milestone" in his life and career, a splendid copy in original dust jacket.

The Jamaican-born McKay, the "celebrated and controversial poet and novelist… was one of the most prominent and militant voices for racial equality in the early years of the Harlem Renaissance… his fierce artistic and political independence earned him the respect of young writers, among them Langston Hughes" (Bader, African-American Writers, 274-5). McKay's "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). McKay's travels in Europe and Africa widely influenced Banjo, a work that "marks an important milestone in the literary as well as ideological evolution of McKay… His 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. Dust jacket design by eminent Harlem Renaissance artist Aaron Douglas. Blockson 4736. Bookseller ticket.

Only lightest toning to dust jacket spine. A fine copy.