"NO EARLY INDEPENDENT BLACK FILMMAKER WAS MORE IMPORTANT": FIRST EDITION OF PIONEERING FILMMAKER AND AUTHOR OSCAR MICHEAUX'S NOVEL, FORGED NOTE, 1915, PUBLISHED THE SAME YEAR AND OPPOSING D.W. GRIFFITHS' RACIST FILM, BIRTH OF A NATION

MICHEAUX, Oscar. The Forged Note. A Romance of the Darker Races. Lincoln, Nebraska: Western Book Supply Company, 1915. Octavo, original gilt-stamped red cloth, photographic endpapers.

First edition of the highly autobiographical second novel by the trailblazing Black independent filmmaker and novelist, defying the vicious racism in D.W. Griffith's infamous Birth of a Nation, prompting Micheaux to premiere his first feature film within four years and creating "almost single-handedly a popular Black cinema," with 14 full-page illustrations, in original cloth.

Born in 1884, Micheaux used his savings from working as a Pullman porter to buy and farm land in South Dakota. That experience fueled his groundbreaking first novels, Conquest (1913), Forged Note (1915) and Homesteader (1919). In addition to encouraging "Blacks to migrate to the Midwest… [these] novels bore striking resemblance to his own life… for example, in Forged Note, the protagonist is a novelist who, like Micheaux, attempts to promote and distribute his works… His entrepreneurial drive kept surfacing in new ventures," including his own book publishing company (ANB). Micheaux published Forged Note the same year D.W. Griffith premiered his racist epic, Birth of a Nation. Griffiths' "unabashed tribute to the KKK" helped galvanize "the first group of independent African American filmmakers… [and] no early independent Black filmmaker was more important than" Micheaux, who created his film company in 1918, then directed and produced his first feature film, Homesteader (1919), based on the novel that followed Forged Note. "Micheaux was dedicated to his own concept of Black cinema… through sheer drive coupled with a shrewd promotional sense, he was able to write, direct and produce" over 30 films, though most have been lost (Kisch and Mapp, A Separate Cinema, xiii-xvi).

"The first African American feature-length sound movie, The Exile (1931), was a Micheaux creation. Another Micheaux film, Body and Soul (1924), featured singer and actor Paul Robeson in his first American appearance on screen (1937)" (Africana, 630-31). His second film, Within Our Gates (circa 1920), had "an explosive lynching sequence" and quickly disappeared. But when a print was discovered after many decades, audiences were finally able to "see a pioneering African American director examining… other 'explosive' issues such as rape, miscegenation and urban crime" (Donald Bogle). "Micheaux successfully fashioned almost single-handedly a popular Black cinema… a prototype for African American independent cinema" (Oxford Companion to African American Literature, 495). In both his life and his work, "Micheaux endeavored to go beyond the realm of the ordinary" (bell hooks). First edition, first printing: "Copyright, 1915 by Woodruff Bank Note Co." on pictorial copyright page containing no statement of edition or printings. With 14 full-page illustrations including title page, depicting scenes from the novel. With photographic pastedowns in imitation of dust jacket flaps containing printed text, photographic portrait of Micheaux. Without rare dust jacket.

Interior bright with mere trace of edge-wear to early leaf, inner hinges expertly reinforced, bright gilt cloth. A handsome about-fine copy.