And Still I Rise.
Inscribed To James Baldwin
Angelou, Maya. And Still I Rise. New York: Random House, (1978).
Slim 8vo.; edged slightly foxed; quarter cloth over dark orange paper-covered boards; decorative yellow dust-jacket; a beautiful copy. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition, second printing of Angelou’s fifth book. A remarkable presentation copy, in which Angelou incorporates the titles of her previous works, inscribed on the front free endpaper: Jim Baldwin, Thank you. Caged Birds gather in your name./ Cool drinks of water are cascading on the Wings that fit you Well. And through all the singin’ & swingin’ we still rise. Thank you/ Joy!/ Maya Angelou Mar ’79.
Born in 1928, Maya Angelou, actress, singer, writer, Afro-feminist activist, was reared primarily by her grandmother, Annie Henderson (referred to as “Momma” by the author and her brother, Bailey) in the rural town of Stamps, Arkansas, at the apogee of semi-institutionalized segregation, which, according to Angelou, was “so complete that many black children didn’t really, absolutely know what whites looked like.”
Angelou was introduced to James Baldwin in the early 1950s in Paris, where she was dancing in a production of “Porgy and Bess.” The two became increasingly friendly through Baldwin’s interest in the New York production of Genet’s “The Blacks,” in which Angelou also performed. When her publisher sent Baldwin the manuscript of her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical account of Angelou’s life in her mid-teens, his response was enthusiastic: the book made him want to “gather tribes together…and celebrate…the triumph of [the] human spirit.”
A great association copy, linking two of the essential figures in African-American culture.
(#91)
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