December 2022: Comics and Graphic Novels

Comics and Graphic Novels drew the attention of the December 2022 meeting.  In comics and graphic novels, writers and illustrators come together not only to tell as story, but to show a story.  The books and magazines shown span an array of categories including autobiography, political commentary, satire, human interest, fantasy, fairytale, and scripture.

One collector shared a group of comic book form adaptations of classic novels and short stories.  While acquiring the true hardcover first editions of these classic works, mainly published in the 19th century, the collector also found comic book versions of the same titles.  Most of these adaptations are from the Classics Illustrated series originally published from 1941 through 1971.  Other comic book publishers such as Dell and Marvel Comics also produced comic book adaptations of classic literature.

These adaptations lead off this month's selection of comic books and graphic novels.

 

Herman Melville and Mark Twain adaptations

Melville, Herman.  Moby Dick.  Classics Illustrated, Number 5.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1942.  Adapted by Louis Zansky.  Illustrated by Louis Sansky and Harvey Kurtzman.  Moby-Dick was first published by Melville in 1851.

Clemens, Samuel L.  Huckleberry Finn.  Classics Illustrated, Number 19.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1944.  Adapted by Evelyn Goodman.  Illustrated by Louis Zansky.  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published by Mark Twain in 1885.

Jules Verne adaptations

Verne, Jules.  From the Earth to the Moon.  Classics Illustrated, Number 105.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1953.  Illustrated by Alex Blum.  The first American edition of From the Earth to the Moon was published in 1874.

Verne, Jules.  Off on a Comet.  Classics Illustrated, Number 149.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1959.  Illustrated by Gerald McCann.  Hector Servadac (original title) was first published in French in 1877.

Verne, Jules.  A Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Classics Illustrated, Number 138.  New Yok: Gilberton Company, 1957.  Illustrated by Norman Nodel.  The first English edition of A Journey to the Center of the Earth was published in 1872.

H. G. Wells adaptations

Wells, H. G.  The First Men in the Moon.  Classics Illustrated, Number 144.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1958.  Illustrated by George Woodbridge, Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, and Roy Krenkel.  The First Men in the Moon was first published by Wells in 1901.

Wells, H. G.  The Time Machine.  Classics Illustrated, Number 133.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1956.  Adapted by Lorenz Graham.  Illustrated by Lou Cameron.  The Time Machine was first published by Wells in 1895.

Wells, H. G.  The War of the Worlds.  Classics Illustrated, Number 124.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1955.  Adapted by Harry G. Miller.  Illustrated by Lou Cameron.  The War of the Worlds was first published by Wells in 1898.

Edgar Allan Poe adaptations

Poe, Edgar Allan.  The Raven.  New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1963.  "The Raven" was first published in American Review in February 1845 under the pseudonym "Quarles" and made its first appearance in book form in Poe's Tales in June 1845.

Poe, Edgar Allan.  The Gold Bug and Other Stories.  Classics Illustrated, Number 84.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1951.  Illustrated by Alex Blum.  "The Gold Bug" first appeared in book form in Poe's Tales in 1845.

Poe, Edgar Allan.  The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Suspense Stories.  New York: Marvel Classics Comics, 1977.  "The Pit and the Pendulum" first appeared in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present in 1843. 

 

Canyon Kiddies

Swinnerton, James.  "Kiddies of the Canyon Country."  Good Housekeeping.  Various issues, 1924.  A sampling of eight leaves of Swinnerton's Canyon Kiddies series extracted from the magazine, each dated 1924.  "Kiddies of the Canyon Country" appeared regularly in Good Housekeeping from 1922 to 1941.  The comics depicted Native Americans in the Arizona desert in everyday family life, work, and play, with a focus on the children.

Canyon Kiddies

Swinnerton (1875 – 1974) was an American cartoonist and landscape painter.  He mostly painted scenes in the Desert Southwest.  As a cartoonist, he was influential in the development of 19th Century comic strips due to his emphasis on narrative continuity among the panes.

Southern Cross

Hyde, Laurence.  Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas.  Montreal, Quebec: Drawn & Quarterly, 2007.  Hardcover, 256 pages.  First published in 1951, Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas is a wordless graphic novel told in 118 wood engravings about the atomic bomb testing performed by the United States in the South Pacific following World War II.  Laurence Hyde was infuriated with the continued testing in the Bikini Atoll.  His 1951 graphic novel tells the story of a Polynesian island and its inhabitants who were leading an idyllic life that is lost after American sailors arrive and evacuate the islanders from their homes.  During the evacuation, a fisherman kills a sailor who attempts to rape his wife.  The couple flees with their child into the jungle to avoid capture.  After the other islanders have evacuated, the Americans detonate an atom bomb on the ocean floor.  The island receives the brunt of the bomb's destructive force, which annihilates all flora and fauna.  The fisherman and his family are subjected to horrific suffering and pain before dying from the resulting blast and radiation.

Southern Cross illustrations

This edition of Southern Cross includes the original introduction by Rockwell Kent and two essays by Hyde in which he provides a description of the process of wood engraving, and a brief history of the woodcut novel.

 

Blondie

Young, Chic.  Blondie.  Number 196 (March).  Derby, CT: Charlton Comics, 1972.  Chic Young was an American cartoonist who originally wrote the comic strip Dumb Dora.  He quit writing Dumb Dora in 1930 to begin a new strip, Blondie, which premiered the same year.  Interestingly, cartoonist Paul Fung, Sr. took over Dumb Dora following Young's departure, and his son, Paul Fung, Jr., later became Blondie's cartoonist.  This issue of Blondie shows Fung's illustrator signature on the cover and was published a year before Young died.

Blondie

Watchmen

Moore, Alan and David Gibbons.  Watchmen.  Burbank, CA: DC Comics, 2011.  Absolute (Deluxe) edition, December 2011.  Hardcover, 464 pages in slipcase.  First published in 1987, Watchmen was created by the British DC Comics team of Alan Moore (writer) and Dave Gibbons (illustrator).  The story deconstructs and satirizes the longstanding popular representations of superheroes such as Superman and Batman.  Its central murder mystery provides the hook for a story that examines Cold War anxieties and asks profound questions about hero worship.  The story revolves around the very human moral struggles of its team of superhero protagonists and asks how such heroes would function in a normal world.  It is an alternate history where superheroes began emerging in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s.  Their appearance led to some major changes to the timeline such as the United States winning the Vietnam War.  However, in the mid-1980s the U.S. finds itself on the brink of World War III with the Soviet Union.  One of the superheroes, Dr. Manhattan, has the power to stop the Soviet threat but it is illegal for superheroes to use their powers because a fearful, distrusting government has outlawed them.  The novel explores the question, Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? (Who watches the watchmen?)

Watchmen

Watchmen was recognized in Time Magazine’s List of the 100 Best Novels published since 1923.  In a review for the BBC, Nicholas Barber said, “every panel on every page feels expertly crafted and composed.  The publication of Watchmen was the moment comic books grew up.”  Watchmen won the Eisner Award, the Kirby Award, and a Hugo Award for best graphic novel.  Watchmen was released as a major blockbuster film in 2009.

 

You're Smokin' Now, Mr. Butts!

Trudeau, G. B.  You're Smokin' Now, Mr. Butts!: A Doonesbury Book.  Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1990.  Garry Trudeau began publishing his Doonesbury comic strip in 1970.  In 1975 it became the first daily comic strip to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.  Like the daily comic strip, You're Smokin' Now, Mr. Butts! continues Trudeau's use of political satire, taking aim at contemporary issues such as Tienanmen Square, the invasion of Panama, and the Bush administration.  This copy is signed on the half title page by Trudeau.

 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home

Whedon, Joss and Georges Jeanty.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home.  Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2007.  Whedon's television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003, following the 1992 film of the same name. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home

Before the show was cancelled, Whedon had already drafted the storyline for an eighth season.  Wanting to tell the story, he found a new medium for The Long Way Home in a comic book format.  The Long Way Home is the first of several comic books by Dark Horse Books to continue the Buffy saga.

 

The Book of Genesis Illustrated

Crumb, R.  The Book of Genesis Illustrated.  New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009.  First edition.  Unlike previous comic book adaptations of the Bible, which heavily truncate the text, Crumb faithfully renders the text of the Book of Genesis in its entirety.  He draws heavily from Robert Alter's Genesis: Translation and Commentary (1996) and The Five Books of Moses (2004) in addition to the King James Version for the text of his illustrated Genesis. Crumb disclaims in his introduction, "In a few places I have ventured to do a little interpretation of my own, if I thought the words could be made clearer, but I refrained from indulging too often in such 'creativity,' and sometimes let it stand in its convoluted vagueness rather than monkey around with such a venerable text."

The Book of Genesis Illustrated

Crumb sought to create a "visual, literal interpretation" of the Book of Genesis, even so far as to graphically illustrate some of the more violent stories in the text.  Some of his visual interpretations, however, are refreshing in regard to familiar biblical images.  For example, while most illustrations of Noah and the ark depict a bucolic scene in which the animals, two by two, calmly approach and board the giant boat, Crumb depicts the pairs of animals frantically fleeing the ark after it grounded on dry land.     

The Book of Genesis Illustrated

 

The Prince and the Dressmaker

Wang, Jen.  The Prince and the Dressmaker.  New York: First Second Books, 2018.  First edition.  The graphic novel follows a cross-dressing Sebastian, the Crown Prince of Belgium, and his alter, Crystallia, and their potentially romantic relationship with Frances, the seamstress who designs Crystallia's elaborate dresses. 

The Prince and the Dressmaker

Wang, a cartoonist and illustrator, developed the fairytale story from an idea about a superhero-like character who created clothes which transformed the people who wore them.  She originally wrote the main characters older but adapted them to teenagers to heighten the conflicts of the story.  The Prince and the Dressmaker won the 2018 Harvey Award for Best Children's or Young Adult Book and the 2019 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens.

 

Run: Book One

Lewis, John and Andrew Aydin.  Run: Book One.  New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2021.  First edition.  Run follows Lewis's autobiographical trilogy March.  In March, Lewis tells his life story.  In Run, Lewis shares specific stories from his life to illustrate lessons from the civil rights movement and to inspire young people to continue to engage in "good trouble" in the pursuit of civil and human rights, equality and opportunity, and voting rights and defending democracy.  The complete story arc for Run was conceived and outlined by Lewis following the completion of March.  Work commenced on the Run series prior to Lewis's death in 2020 but Book One was published posthumously.

Run: Book One

This copy is signed on a limited-edition bookplate affixed to the title page by Andrew Ayden (story), L. Fury (art), and Nate Powell (art and lettering).

 

November 2022: "A Quaint and Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore"

Coming soon.

Due to the prolonged illness and death of one of the book group's founding members, I am behind on these posts.  I apologize for the delay, but will have them up as soon as possible.

October 2022: The Book as Object

Coming soon.

Due to the prolonged illness and death of one of the book group's founding members, I am behind on these posts.  I apologize for the delay, but will have them up as soon as possible.

September 2022: Favorite First Lines

In her essay "The Fisherwoman’s Daughter," Ursula K. Le Guin writes, "first sentences are doors to worlds."  She doesn't develop the thought further, but it is a succinct reflection on the importance of a story's opening line.  The first line does not merely begin the story but rather invites the reader into the characters' world.  It can set the tone of the story or captivate your imagination.  A great first line can pique your curiosity or make you instantly uncomfortable.  It may intentionally deceive you or foreshadow things to come.  In whatever way a first line grabs your attention, it opens a door and entices you to come inside.

For the September 2022 meeting, members shared their favorite first lines.  From memorable first lines of classic literature to eerie opening lines of science fiction and fantasy, most members' favorite first lines were drawn from fiction.  One member, a Bible collector, shared several early English translations of the opening verses of the Gospel of John.

Fiction

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

"The Raven" (1845), Edgar Allan Poe 

"The Raven"

Poe, Edgar Allan.  "The Raven."  The American Review, Vol. 1, No. 2 (February 1845): 143-145.  First appearance, published under the pseudonym "Quarles."

 

"A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes."

The Scarlet Letter (1850),

Nathaniel Hawthorne 

The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne, Nathaniel.  The Scarlet Letter.  Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1975.  Limited edition, in red leather, with the more scare gilt design.

 

"The stranger came early in February, one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking as it seemed from Bramblehurst railway station, and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand."

The Invisible Man (1897), H. G. Wells

The Invisible Man

Wells, H. G.  The Invisible Man.  Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1967.  Leather-bound with gilt decoration and "Invisible" blind stamped on front cover.

 

"When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, which was checked in the baggage car, a cheap imitation alligator skin satchel holding some minor details of the toilet, a small lunch in a paper box and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money."

Sister Carrie (1900), Theodore Dreiser 

Sister Carrie

Dreiser, Theodore.  Sister Carrie.  Unexpurgated Version.  New York: Doubleday, 1997.  The New York Public Library Collector's Edition.

 

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.  Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

The Hobbit (1937), J. R. R. Tolkien 

The Hobbit

Tolkien, J. R. R.  The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.  First edition thus, annotated.

The footnote to this edition illuminates: "The opening paragraph has become so widely known that in 1980 it was added to the fifteenth edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations."

 

"A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead."

The End of the Affair (1951),

Graham Greene 

The End of the Affair

Greene, Graham.  The End of the Affair.  London: William Heinemann, 1951.  Uncorrected proof copy.

This first line ranked #54 on the list of "100 Best Opening Lines of Novels" by American Book Review (Volume 27, No. 2, 2006).

 

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), C. S. Lewis 

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Lewis, C. S.  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  New York: Macmillan, 1952.  Unstated printing.

This first line ranked #47 on the list of "100 Best Opening Lines of Novels" by American Book Review (Volume 27, No. 2, 2006).

 

"It was love at first sight."

Catch-22 (1961), Joseph Heller 

Catch-22

Heller, Joseph.  Catch-22.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961.  First edition.

This first line ranked #59 on the list of "100 Best Opening Lines of Novels" by American Book Review (Volume 27, No. 2, 2006).

 

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

Neuromancer (1984), William Gibson 

Neuromancer

Gibson, William.  Neuromancer.  New York: Ace Books, 1984.  First edition.

Neuromancer

Gibson, William.  Neuromancer.  West Bloomfield, MI: Phantasia Press, 1986.  Signed limited edition and first US hardcover edition.

This first line ranked #30 on the list of "100 Best Opening Lines of Novels" by American Book Review (Volume 27, No. 2, 2006).

 

“The Hegemony Consul sat on the balcony of his ebony spaceship and played Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp Minor on an ancient but well-maintained Steinway while great, green, saurian things surged and bellowed in the swamps below.”

Hyperion (1989), Dan Simmons

Hyperion

Simmons, Dan.  Hyperion.  New York: Doubleday, 1989.  First edition.

Hyperion

Simmons, Dan.  Hyperion.  Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2013.  Signed limited edition.

 

"In the beginning was the nightmare, and the knife was with Saint Paul, and the circumcision was a Jewish notion and definitely not mine."

Live from Golgotha: The Gospel According

to Gore Vidal (1992), Gore Vidal

Live from Golgotha

Vidal, Gore.  Live From Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal.  New York: Random House, 1992.  First edition.

 

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.  They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense."

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997), J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Rowling, J. K.  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  New York: Scholastic, 1998.  First edition, 22nd printing. This copy is signed by the author on the title page.

 

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974."

Middlesex (2002), Jeffrey Eugenides

Middlesex

Eugenides, Jeffrey.  Middlesex.  New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.  First edition.

This first line ranked #50 on the list of "100 Best Opening Lines of Novels" by American Book Review (Volume 27, No. 2, 2006).

"On the morning we are to leave for our Grand Tour of the Continent, I wake in bed beside Percy.  For a disorienting moment, it's unclear whether we've slept together or simply slept together."

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

(2017), Mackenzi Lee

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

Lee, Mackenzi.  The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue.  New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2017.  First edition.

The Gospel of John

One collector showed five of the earliest English translations of the Bible, from the first translation into English by John Wycliffe in 1378 through to the King James Bible printed in 1611, comparing the opening two verses of the Gospel of John.

 

"In the bygynnynge was the worde (that is goddis sone), and the worde was at god, and God was the worde.  This was in the bigynnynge at God."

John 1.1-2, Wycliffe (1378)

Wycliffe's New Testament

Wycliffe, John.  The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Translated out of the Latin Vulgat by John Wiclif, S.T.P. Prebendary of Aust in the Collegiate Church of Westbury, and Rector of Lutterworth, about 1378. To Which Is Praefixt: A History of the Several Translations of the H. Bible and N. Testament, etc. into English, Both in MS and Print, and of the Most Remarkable Editions of Them Since the Invention of Printing. By John Lewis, A.M., Chaplain to the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Malton, and Minister of Mergate.  London: Thomas Page and William Mount and William Parker, 1731.  The first letterpress printing of Wycliffe's New Testament from its manuscript form, with a frontispiece facsimile of the manuscript page of John 1.

"In the begynnynge was the word, and the word was with God, and God was the word.  The same was in the beginninge with God."

John 1.1-2, Tyndale (1526)

Tyndale's New Testament

Tyndale, William.  The Newe Testament of Oure Saviour Jesus Christe. Faythfully Translated oute of the Greke. With the Notes and Expositions of the Darke Places therein.  London: Richard Jugge, 1553.  An important and rare copy of an early edition of Tyndale's New Testament with revisions by the printer and editor, Richard Jugge.  This edition includes a portrait of King Edward VI on the title page; his successor, Mary I, ordered all copies of Tyndale's translation to be burned, making copies exceedingly rare.

"In the begynnyng was the worde, and the word was with God, and God was the worde.  That was in the begynnynge with God."

John 1.1-2, Coverdale (1535)

Coverdale's New Testament

Coverdale, Miles.  The Newe Testament Both in Latine and Englyshe Eche Correspondente to the Other after the Vulgare Texte, Communely Called S. Jeromes. Faythfullye Translated by Johan Hollybushe.  Southwark [London], England: James Nicolson, 1538.  Diglot printing with Coverdale's English translation in parallel with the Latin text.

"In the begynnynge was the worde, and the worde was wyth God: and God was the worde.  The same was in the begynnyng wyth God."

John 1.1-2, The Great Bible (1539)

The Great Bible

Great Bible.  The Byble in Englyshe, That Is To Saye the Content of Al the Holy Scrypture, Both of the Olde, and Newe Testament, with a Prologe Therinto, Made by the Reverende Father in God, Thomas, Archbysshop of Cantorbury. This Is the Bible Apoynted to the Use of the Churches.  London: Richard Grafton, 1540.  Second printing (April 1540) with illustrated title pages by Hans Holbein.  The New Testament title page of this early printing includes the coats of arms identifying Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell, respectively; all references to Cranmer and Cromwell, including their coats of arms on the Holbein illustration, were removed from later printings of the Great Bible upon orders from Henry VIII.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God."

John 1.1-2, The King James Bible (1611)

The King James Bible (1611)

Authorized Version.  The Holy Bible. Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, by His Majesties Speciall Commandement. Appointed to be Read in Churches.  London: Robert Barker, 1611.  The first printing of the King James Bible, bound with Speed, Genealogies, 1611.

May 2022: Black Authors

Black authors took center stage for the May 2002 meeting.  While not a limitation of the topic, all the authors presented are American authors.  They range from 19th century writers to those still publishing today and from fiction writers to scholarly authors.

The highlighted black authors are presented here in chronological order.

 

Charles W. Chesnutt  (1858 – 1932)

Charles W. Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays

Chesnutt, Charles W.  Charles W. Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays. New York: Library of America, 2002.  939 pages.  This collection published by the Library of America includes some of Chesnutt's most important works, especially The Conjure Woman, first published in 1899.

Chesnutt was a lawyer and political activist.  In 1887 he founded a legal stenography (court reporting) business which gave him the financial means to focus on his writing.  In 1910, he joined the General Committee of the National Association of for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which had formed a year earlier, alongside W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.  He wrote articles advocating for equal opportunities for education and authored legal challenges to discriminatory laws on behalf of the NAACP.  He also wrote novels and short stories which explored racial identity using African American speech and folklore. 

 

Paul Laurence Dunbar  (1872 – 1906)

When Malindy Sings

Dunbar, Paul Laurence.  When Malindy Sings.  New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1903.  Dunbar's sixth poetry collection, first published in 1896.

The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar

Dunbar, Paul Laurence.  The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.  New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1917.  A posthumous collection of all of Dunbar's published poems.

Dunbar was a poet, novelist, and short story writer from Dayton, Ohio.  At age 16, he published his first poem in the Dayton newspaper.  He published twelve poetry collections and six works of prose (novels and short story collections).  Dunbar wrote in both "conventional English" and Southern and Midwestern regional "Negro dialects."  After his work was praised by William Dean Hollins, an editor with Harper's Weekly, Dunbar achieved national popularity and was one of the first African American writers to gain an international reputation.  Dunbar also wrote the lyrics to In Dahomey, the first all-African American musical produced on Broadway in 1903.  Dunbar died of tuberculosis at the age of 33.

 

James Deotis Roberts  (1927 – )

Faith and Reason

Roberts, James Deotis.  Faith and Reason: A Comparative Study of Pascal, Bergson, and James.  Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1962.  First edition.  This little-known title is a distillation of Roberts's doctoral dissertation.  He earned his Ph.D. in philosophical theology from Edinburgh University in 1959.  This copy is inscribed by the author on the front free end paper.

Roberts was among the first generation of African Americans to earn post-graduate degrees in the United States (though he completed his doctorate in Scotland).  An ordained Baptist minister, Roberts pastored churches in North Carolina and Connecticut while in seminary before teaching full time after completing his Ph.D.  Roberts served as the Dean of Religion at Georgia Baptist College, the president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, and Distinguished Professor of Philosophical Theology at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Roberts is a pioneering figure in Black Theology, most noted for his books on political theology, including A Black Political Theology (1974), Black Theology in Dialogue (1987), and The Prophethood of Black Believers: An African American Political Theology for Ministry (1994).

 

Maya Angelou  (1928 – 2014)

On the Pulse of Morning

Angelou, Maya.  On the Pulse of Morning.  New York: Random House, 1993.  First printing of the poem recited by the poet at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993.  Angelou was the second poet to be part of a presidential inauguration (after Robert Frost, who read his poem at the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy), and the first woman and person of color to do so.

Still I Rise

Angelou, Maya.  Still I Rise.  New York: Random House, 2001.  Illustrations by Diego Rivera.  A reprint of Angelou's inspiring poem interwoven with vivid paintings by Diego Rivera.  "Still I Rise" was first published in 1978 in Angelou's third poetry collection, And Still I Rise.

Angelou was a poet and memoirist.  She published 7 memoirs, 18 books of poetry, 3 essay collections along with several cookbooks, children's books, and other works including television, film, and stage writing credits.  Her first memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), propelled her to international acclaim.  Throughout her career, she received numerous literary awards as well as a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971).  She also received many civic and arts awards as well as more than 50 honorary degrees.  Angelou was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2011.

 

Ernest J. Gaines  (1933 – 2019)

A Lesson Before Dying

Gaines, Ernest.  A Lesson Before Dying.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.  Gaines's eight novel is based on the true story of Willis Francis, a Black juvenile offender who at the age of 16 survived a failed execution by electrocution in a Louisiana prison.  It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

The Tragedy of Brady Sims

Gaines, Ernest.  The Tragedy of Brady Sims.  New York: Vintage, 2017.  Gaines's last novel, published two years before the author's death.

Gaines was born on a plantation near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, into a sharecropper family and grew up living in old slave quarters on the plantation; this experience informed the settings for many of his later works.  Gaines authored nine novels and several short stories and essays; he is best known for three of his novels, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), A Gathering of Old Men (1983), and A Lesson Before Dying (1993).  In 2007, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence was established in his honor as an annual national literary award to recognize rising African American fiction writers.

 

James H. Cone  (1938 – 2018)

A Black Theology of Liberation

Cone, James H.  A Black Theology of Liberation.  Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1970.  First edition.  This association copy bears a later inscription on the front free end paper by the author to Civil Rights icon Reverend C. T. Vivian.

Cone received his formal education at the end of the wave of the first African Americans to receive post-graduate degrees, receiving his doctorate in 1965.  His professors in his undergraduate and graduate studies were all white; this experience, along with the guidance of Benjamin E. Mays, compelled Cone—who studied theology but did not want to become a pastor—to pursue teaching and scholarship.  Cone became one of the leading academic figures in Black Theology, authoring such seminal works as Black Theology and Black Power (1969), A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), and God of the Oppressed (1975).  Cone began teaching at Union Theological Seminary in 1970 and served as Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology until his death in 2018.

 

Samuel R. Delany  (1942 – )

Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection

Delany, Samuel R.  Babel-17.  New York: Ace Books, 1966.  Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel published in 1966.

Delany, Samuel R.  The Einstein Intersection.  New York: Ace Books, 1967.  Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel published in 1967.

Dhalgren and Babel-17

Delany, Samuel R.  Babel-17.  London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1967.  The Gollancz edition, published the following year.

Delany, Samuel R.  Dhalgren.  New York: Bantam Books, 1973.  Delany's magnum opus and best-selling title.

Delany is primarily a science fiction writer, but he is also highly regarded as a poet and literary critic.  Delany's work includes recurring themes of mythology, memory, language, sexuality, gender, and perception.  Class, social position, and the ability to move from one social stratum to another are motifs which appear throughout his fiction and non-fiction.  In addition to his consecutive Nebula Award wins and other literary awards, Delany was inducted into the Science Fiction & Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2002 and was awarded Grand Master status by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2013.  Delany retired from writing in 2015 and a year later was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame.

 

Alice Walker  (1944 – )

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

Walker, Alice.  In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983.  First edition, second printing.  The collection of nonfiction prose opens with four definitions of the term womanist.  Walker coined the term womanist to describe "a black feminist or feminist of color" focused on the intersection of race, class, and gender oppression.  The term has been adopted by scholars in various academic fields, notably theology and ethics.  This copy bears a later signature by the author on the title page.

The Temple of My Familiar

Walker, Alice.  The Temple of My Familiar.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.  First edition.  This copy is signed and dated by the author on the half title page; the signature is dated 5/9/89, shortly after the title's April 1, 1989, release date.

We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For

Walker, Alice.  We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness.  New York: The New Press, 2006.  First edition.  This copy is signed by the author on the title page.

Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, and attended segregated schools there through high school, graduating valedictorian from the only Black high school in the town.  Much of her fiction, like The Color Purple (1982), takes place in unnamed Southern places which resemble her central Georgia upbringing.  The Color Purple earned Walker the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction.  She has published 13 novels and short story collections, 10 poetry collections, and 11 nonfiction books.  In 2001, she was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

 

Octavia E. Butler  (1947 – 2006)

Parable of the Sower

Butler, Octavia.  Parable of the Sower.  New York: Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1993.  The first novel in the Parable (or Earthseed) series.  Published in the 1990s, the series depicts the struggles of the Earthseed community as 21st Century America is on the verge of economic and political collapse.

Parable of the Talents

Butler, Octavia.  Parable of the Talents.  New York: Seven Stories Press, 1998.  The second and final novel in the Parable (or Earthseed) series.  Butler initially planned six books in the Parable series but abandoned the project after The Parable of the Talents, which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel.

Butler was born and raised in a racially integrated community in Pasadena, California, and experienced ethnic and cultural diversity as a child while much of the country remained stunted by racial segregation.  She began writing science fiction as a teenager.  After several years of modest success as a full-time writer, she attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop where she met and formed a longtime friendship with Samuel R. Delany.  Following the Clarion workshop, her writing grew in popularity and critical acclaim with several successful science fiction series as she found her own voice as a writer and broke free of the white- and male-dominated conventions of most science fiction.

 

P. K. McCary  (1953 – )

Black Bible Chronicles and Rappin' with Jesus

McCary, P. K.  Black Bible Chronicles: From Genesis to the Promised Land.  New York: African American Family Press, 1993.  Book One of the Black Bible Chronicles series.  An interpretation of the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

McCary, P. K.  Rappin' with Jesus: The Good News According to the Four Brothers.  New York: African American Family Press, 1993.  Book Two of the Black Bible Chronicles series.  An interpretation of the four gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

McCary is a journalist who has written for major newspapers across the country including Houston, Denver, Washington DC, and Atlanta.  Black Bible Chronicles and Rappin' with Jesus are her first two books.  As an author, McCary was deeply influenced by her grandfather, a minister, whom she credits for instilling in her an abiding faith, which inspired her to write a biblical interpretation in a language young people might better understand.  In a foreword to Black Bible Chronicles, The Honorable Andrew Young writes:

Important to our young people's understanding of the Word is the manner in which the Bible is communicated.  To be truly relevant to their experience, it must be in a language familiar to them.

The Black Bible Chronicles is an attempt to put the most important message of life in the language of the streets.

To illustrate McCary's "language of the streets," consider the opening of the Bible, Genesis 1.1-5.  The New Revised Standard Version opens:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.  Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

McCary's interpretation opens:

Now when the Almighty was first down with His program, He made the heavens and the earth.  The earth was a fashion misfit, being so uncool and dark, but the Spirit of the Almighty came down real tough, so that He simply said, "Lighten up!"  And that light was right on time.  And the Almighty liked what He saw and let the light hang out a while before it was dark again.  He laid out a name for the light, calling it "day" time and the dark He called "night" time so that all around it made up the first day.

 

Margaret Aymer  (1968 – )

First Pure, Then Peaceable

Aymer, Margaret P.  First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass Reads James.  London: T & T Clark, 2008.  First edition.  This title is a slight revision of Aymer's doctoral dissertation.  This copy is inscribed on the front free end paper by the author to a friend and colleague, bearing an inside joke.

Aymer is a first generation West Indian-American scholar.  She is currently the Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament Studies at Austin Theological Seminary.  Active in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), she has served the denomination in a number of committee appointments, including the steering committee for the Committee on Theological Education Consultation on Racism from 2004-2008.  She has published two books on the New Testament epistle of James: First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass Reads James (2008) and James: Diaspora Rhetoric of a Friend of God (2014).  She has also contributed to other commentaries and anthologies in biblical studies, including Fortress Commentary on the Bible (2014) and Islanders, Islands and the Bible: Ruminations (2015).

The collector adds: "This book was fun to present to the group because it contains two footnotes which acknowledge the contributions of two members of the Atlanta Antiquarian Book Circle and thanks them for their help with the dissertation.  One collector served as a reader and offered feedback during the writing process, and another provided the author with access to primary source materials from his collection."

 

Mat Johnson  (1970 – )

Incognegro

Johnson, Mat.  Incognegro.  New York: Vertigo, 2008.  Illustrated by Warren Pleece.

Johnson is a biracial fiction writer whose works include both prose and comics.  His work explores themes of racial and cultural identity.  He is the recipient of several writing awards and fellowships including the United States Artist James Baldwin Fellowship and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, which honors Black writers in the United States and internationally for literary achievement. 

 

Tochi Onyebuchi  (1987 – )

Riot Baby

Onyebuchi, Tochi.  Riot Baby.  New York: Tor, 2020. This novel was inspired by the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the lack of indictments of the police officers who killed them.  The book was a finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novella.  It won the World Fantasy Award for best novella, the Ignyte Award for best novella, and the American Library Association's Alex Award for young adult fiction.

Onyebuchi is a first generation Nigerian-American fantasy and science fiction writer.  A former civil rights attorney, he often includes civil rights themes in his stories.  He drew on his experience as a lawyer in setting Riot Baby in New York's Rikers Island, where the main character is wrongfully incarcerated.