Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Charles W. Chesnutt. The Conjure Woman. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York, 1899.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: “The Conjure Woman” by Charles W. Chesnutt was published in 1899 by Houghton, Mifflin and Company of Boston and New York and printed by The Riverside Press of Cambridge. This First Edition copy of the book, which measures approximately 4 ¾ x 7 inches, contains 229 pages and is hard bound in brown cloth covered boards with gilt printing on the front and spine, plus colored illustrations on the front cover. A bookplate of a previous owner is attached to the inner front cover, and a handwritten note on the title page reads “Cleveland’s first Negro author of distinction”. The front free end paper is detached, the book’s pages are lightly tanned, and there is slight fraying at the top and bottom of the spine. Considering all of these factors, the book can still be considered to be in very good condition. The front pastedown bookplate is that of the late Leland Schubert, educator and benefactor who donated a million dollars to Cleveland’s Mayor Carl B. Stokes to help promote employment opportunities, improved housing and education for Cleveland’s poor. Mayor Stokes was the first Afro-American mayor of a major American city. This is Chesnutt’s first book – a collection of short stories entitled The Conjure Woman published in 1899. The collection’s seven stories features black characters who speak in Negro dialect, as was popular in much contemporary southern literature portraying the antebellum years in the South, as well as the postwar period. The stories are told as reminiscences by an old Negro gardener, Uncle Julius. The illustrations above show: • The front cover of the bookmark • The bookplate on the inside front cover • The Title page • The table of Contents • The first page of the first story Charles Waddell Chesnutt (June 20, 1858 – November 15, 1932) was an African-American author, essayist, political activist and lawyer, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Civil War South. Many families of free people of color were formed in the colonial and early Federal period; some attained education and property; in addition there were many mixed-race slaves, who as freedmen after the war were part of the complex society of the South. Two of his books were adapted as silent films in 1926 and 1927 by the African-American director and producer Oscar Micheaux. Following the Civil Rights Movement during the 20th century, interest in the works of Chesnutt were revived. Several of his books were published in new editions, and he received formal recognition. A commemorative stamp was printed in 2008. [Wikipedia]
Seller: Pages For Sages, Beachwood, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$1024.00 + shipping
Description: First Printing of the author's first book, seven interrelated folk tales set in antebellum North Carolina and told "in Negro dialect" by an old gardener. Crown 8vo (175 x 110mm): [4],229,[3]pp. Publisher's finely woven brown pictorial cloth, front cover lettered in gilt, with trio of vignettes stamped in orange, black, and off-white; spine lettered in gilt, title-page vignette. Contemporary calligraphic gift inscription to front fly leaf. An excellent example, securely bound (spine darkened, lettering legible but dulled) and clean throughout (page margins lightly toned). Wright 1017. Powell 91 (One of the first books by a Negro author to receive critical approval."). Blockson (101 Influential Books) 49. First Printings of American Authors III, p. 47. Blockson (Damn Rare), p. 79 (calling The Conjure Woman "rare" and Chesnutt's "first great literary success"). Whiteman, p.14. A collection of short stories as told by Uncle Julius to his white employers, originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, beginning with "The Goophered Grapevine," in 1887, and preceded by a limited edition of 150 copies. In addition to "The Goophered Grapevine," the stories are: Po' Sandy, Mars Jeems's Nightmare, The Conjurer's Revenge, Sis' Becky's Pickaninny, The Gray Wolf's Ha'nt, and Hot-Foot Hannibal, most derived from African American folk tales and hoodoo conjuring traditions. According to Blockson, "The most striking feature of The Conjure Woman is Chesnutt's attempt to challenge the racial integrity of the ante-bellum writers of the plantation South such as Albion W. Touraee, Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Nelson Page, Thomas Dixon, and other white writers." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).
Seller: Fine Editions Ltd, Lancaster, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2750.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Near Fine, tiny rubs to cloth at corners, the bookplate of L. S. Alexander Gumby front paste down. The author's first book, which includes seven folk tales told in an African-American dialect. Levi Sandy Alexander Gumby (February 1, 1885 - March 16, 1961) was an African-American archivist and historian. His collection of 300 scrapbooks documenting African-American history have been part of the collection of Columbia University since 1950 as the Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana. Gumby was also the proprietor of a popular bookstore during the Harlem Renaissance, where he was host of a salon.(Wikipedia). A lovely copy of this important work, and with wonderful provenance. Size: 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall
Seller: Dale Steffey Books, ABAA, ILAB, Bloomington, IN, U.S.A.
CHESNUTT, Charles W.. The Conjure Woman. Printed at The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1899.
Price: US$8000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, large-paper issue. Octavo. 230pp. Brown cloth with publisher's printed spine label. Spine and boards are toned with light tanning on the spine label, a very good copy, issued without dust jacket. Copy number 119 of 150 numbered large-paper copies. Chesnutt's first book, a very scarce issue of an iconic African-American work of fiction.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Chesnutt, Charles W.. The Conjure Woman. Printed at the Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA, 1899.
Price: US$32000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, large paper issue. copy number 27 of a limited 150. Signed by Charles Chesnutt on the title page, with an inscription reading "Sincerely Yours, Chas. W. Chesnutt." Bound in publisher's original brown cloth with printed paper title label on the spine. Very Good with slight lean to binding, a bit of soiling and darkening to cloth at edges, shallow chipping at spine ends, toning and some loss to title label on spine, contemporary former owner name to the front paste down. A collection of short stories as told in dialect by Uncle Julius, a freed slave, in antebellum North Carolina. Signed copies of this book are incredibly scarce, with one copy of the first trade edition appearing at auction in 2013 and a second printing appearing in 2004.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.