"THE INTELLIGENT WHITE MAN WHO IS NOT INFORMED ON THE NEGLECT… OF THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH IS AS DANGEROUS TO FUTURE PEACE AND LAW AND ORDER AS IS THE SO-CALLED BAD NEGRO": FIRST EDITION OF CARL SANDBURG'S THE CHICAGO RACE RIOTS, 1919

SANDBURG, Carl. The Chicago Race Riots. July, 1919. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1919. Octavo, original printed tan paper wrappers respined with original spine laid down; pp. 71.

First book edition of Sandburg's investigation of racial unrest in Chicago, with an Introductory Note by Walter Lippmann.

"Between wars he investigated the American scene, covering politics, crime, business, and civil rights. His farsighted investigative reportage of racial strife in Chicago for the Chicago Daily News resulted in The Chicago Race Riots, July 1919, published in 1919" (ANB). Cameron McWhirter, a Wall Street Journal Reporter and an expert on the tumultuous events of 1919 who has written two books on the subject, considers this work "a masterpiece from an era during which journalism was abysmal on the subject of race" (Chicago Magazine on McWhirter). "Despite being a poet, Sandburg could easily shift gears into an analytical mode. He knew how to get stats, and brought them to bear on the stories he gathered… Like reporters and bloggers today, Sandburg liberally used studies, reports and census data, which led to still-resonant writing… It’s not just that Sandburg happened to be at the right place at the right time, knowing the right questions to ask; Sandburg’s methodology was also strikingly prescient. There are chapters on labor and race; a section on urban planning borrowed from 'Lieut. Charles S. Duke, a colored man, a Harvard graduate, and an engineer in the bridge division of the public works department at the city hall' which includes recommendations for green space and a 'beautiful branch library in the center of the colored district' (Duke went on to found the National Technical Association); an interview with philanthropist Julius Rosenwald; and concludes with an interview of former NAACP head Joel Spingarn (also an early comp lit expert and co-founder of Harcourt, Brace and Company) on the need for coordination between federal, state, and local governments. In the way it bounces between reporting, stat-gathering, Q&As, and macro- and micro-analysis, it’s like seeing the seeds of the Washington Post’s Wonkblog or many others like it—not just a glimpse of Chicago’s near future, but journalism’s distant future" (Chicago Magazine). Sandburg's work was originally published as a series in the Chicago Daily News in 1919. Owner signature of John Drury.

Slight staining to edges of text block, light wear and toning mainly to extremities of wrappers, a bit of wear to spine including title. An extremely good copy of a rare and fragile work.