Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Hearn, Lafcadio. Two Years in the French West Indies. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$19.95 + shipping
Description: New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. A sound EX-LIBRARY copy. Very Good+ condition. Sturdily rebound in red cloth. Pages are clean and unmarked. (1890). 36 illustrations, mostly after photos by William Lawless. Fourteen "Martinique Sketches" and the essay: A MIDSUMMER TRIP TO THE TROPICS based on Hearn's observations while traveling to the Lesser Antilles in the summer of 1887. Includes an appendix of Creole melodies with musical notation. "Hearn's best piece of work before leaving these United States for the orient. He combines here with his travelogue, stories equal or superior to the separately printed YOUMA and CHITA." - Merle Johnson (in HIGH SPOTS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, p. 40). "This tells of the two years the author lived in the West Indies in the late 1880's, a time which captivated him " - Smith H80. Turn-of-the-century printing of BAL 7920. Early reprint. Hardcover. Very Good+ EX-LIBRARY/No jacket. Illus. by Lawless, William (photography). 8vo. 431pp.
Seller: About Books, Henderson, NV, U.S.A.
Lafcadio Hearn. Youma - the Story of a West-Indian Slave. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1890.
Price: US$25.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Moderate shelfwear. Paper label on somewhat darkened spine a bit worn but readable. Black and gray covers.
Seller: Ron Griswold Books North, Pittsfield, MA, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Youma: the story of a West-Indian slave. Harper & Brothers, 1890.
Price: US$25.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: An apparent First American edition, published in New York by Harper & Brothers, 1890. Bound handsomely in a white cloth decorated in geometric blue, paper label to cover and spine, forward cock thereto, some light but uniform toning to text-block, foxing at endpapers, dissipating thereafter. Fine black-and-white portrait at frontis, tissue-protected. Youma is Lafcadio Hearn's (1850-1904) fifth book, and another novel, Two Years in the French West Indies, were based on his 1887-1889 residence on the island of Martinique. The protagonist, "Youma," was an enslaved black girl but who was raised as a white girl's companion. Youma becomes guardian of that white girl when she grows up, has a daughter, and then dies. 193 pp. including two pages of publisher ads.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.
Seller: Structure, Verses, Agency Books, Spray, OR, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Youma; The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$25.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 19 x 12.5 cm. 12mo. 193pp. Bound in red cloth. Originally done in 1890, this is an early reprint. Spine is faded. Boards are cocked.
Seller: Midway Book Store (ABAA), St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. YOUMA, THE STORY OF A WEST-INDIAN SLAVE. , 1890.
Price: US$35.00 + shipping
Description: New York. 1890 Harper. Hardcover octavo. Reddish brown cloth with gilt spine lettering. 193p. Two library blind stamps and "date due" slip inside rear board. No other library marks at all (there is a faint rubbed spot on spine where label once was but it is barely visible.) no dj.
Seller: Xerxes Fine and Rare Books and Documents, Glen Head, NY, U.S.A.
Hearn,Lafcadio. Youma. The Story of A West-Indian Slave.. New York: Harper & Brothers,, 1890.
Price: US$43.96 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: First edition, later issue. (4),193,(1)pp.,(2)pp.(advertisememt of "Two years in the French West Indies" and "Chita"). With a b/w frontis.(no tissue guard). Red cloth, gilt title to spine. Rear board sl.stained. Spine faded. Top edge darkened and other edges somewhat foxing. E.ps.light foxing. Ex-libris.pasted on front e.p. Hinges of front e.p.somewhat started. A front flyleaf torn torn at hinges (not detached). Frontis.detached. Pages light foxing. Small bookshop labels pasted on rear flyleaf and rear e.p. Pencil notationed to rear flyleaf. 19x13.3cm. [f0940-171032]
Seller: Ogawa Tosho,Ltd. ABAJ, ILAB, Chiyoda-ku, TOKYO, Japan
Hearn, Lafcadio. Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper, NY, 1890.
Price: US$45.00 + shipping
Description: Very good with light bumping to edges, fading to spine and slight rolling. Title page almost detached Red cloth with gilt-lettered spine
Seller: Weller Book Works, A.B.A.A., Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
Hearn,Lafcadio. Youma. The Story of A West-Indian Slave.. New York: Harper & Brothers,, 1890.
Price: US$58.61 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: First edition, first issue. Published in an edition of 1250 copies. (4),193,(1)pp.,(2)pp.(advertisememt of "Two years in the French West Indies" and "Chita"). With a b/w frontis.(with tissue guard). White cloth with blue design (narrow plants?). Paper title label pasted on front board and spine. Ex-library (Union School Library of the city of Alpena) with a large sticker pasted on front e.p. Front and rear boards sunned, worn at corners. Title label of front board foxing and partly missing. Spine sunned, faded, worn at edges, and title label sunned and almost all part of it missing. Edges foxing and darkened. Front and rear e.ps.foxing. A small bookshop label pasted on front e.p. Tissue guard of frontis.sl.stained. Pages foxing. Hinges loose. Margin of pp.14, 22-23, 35, 48-49, 66-67, 99-101, 104-105, 117, 131 sl.stained. Margin of p.15 folded and sl.torn. Pp.76-77 partly stained. 19.8x13.3cm. [f0938-171030]
Seller: Ogawa Tosho,Ltd. ABAJ, ILAB, Chiyoda-ku, TOKYO, Japan
Hearn, Lafcadio. YOUMA The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper & Brothers, New York, NY, 1890.
Price: US$59.95 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardback in Very Good+ condition without dust jacket. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. 191 pages. * Quick Shipping * All Books Mailed in Boxes * Free Tracking Provided *
Seller: Easton's Books, Inc., Mount Vernon, WA, U.S.A.
HEARN, Lafcadio.. Youma. The Story of a West-Indian Slave.. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$60.00 + shipping
Description: 193 pp. plus ads. 8vo, publisher's cloth with printed paper labels. First edition. BAL 7921, Binding Aa. Cloth and labels foxed; spine and edges of boards browned; good to very good.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
HEARN, Lafcadio. Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper, New York, 1890.
Price: US$75.00 + shipping
Description: Small 8vo, blue & white calico cloth, paper labels. N.Y.: Harper, 1890. First Edition. The spine is quite faded & the spine label almost gone, but the covers are bright and the book is clean & solid.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Youma. The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$75.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition, BAL binding Aa. 1 vols. 8vo. BAL 7921; Perkins p.20 Original white cloth printed in blue with an all-over pattern, printed paper label. Binding soiled, lacks frontispiece, a previous owner has enhanced (?) the paper label
Seller: The Old Mill Bookshop, HACKETTSTOWN, NJ, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Youma. The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$95.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Binding B (BAL 7921). Gilt lettering slightly faded.
Seller: John R. Sanderson, Bookseller , Stockbridge, MA, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. YOUMA: THE STORY OF A WEST-INDIAN SLAVE .. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [1-4] 1-193 [194: blank] [195-196: ads], inserted frontispiece with tissue guard, original decorated white cloth printed in blue with floral pattern, printed paper labels on front and spine panels, top edge trimmed, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. First edition. The second of Hearn's three romances, a story of a slave rebellion on Martinique. BAL 7921 (Binding Aa; Binder's Variant B). Wright (III) 2621. Spine panel a bit age-darkened, spine label a bit rubbed and darkened, short hairline cracks to inner hinges which are still holding firm, top edge of pages dusty, a very good copy. (#164088)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
HEARN, Lafcadio. Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper, New York, 1890.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Small 8vo, brown ribbed cloth; spine printed in gilt. N.Y.: Harper, 1890. First Edition. Fine copy, in the second binding.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$134.95 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1890. Photograph available upon request. First Edition. A single issue of this monthly magazine. NOT print on demand or a modern reprint. NOT a library discard. Very Good condition. Cover has some light edgewear and a 1 inch chip at the foot of the spine. Pages are clean and unmarked. NO owner's name or bookplate. February 1890, Volume 80, No. 477. Bound in the original decorated wraps. Complete with all ads. Questions on content? Please inquire. Among the contributions to this issue are: A MAJESTIC LITERARY FOSSIL by Mark Twain; JAMAICA, NEW AND OLD, SECOND PAPER by Howard Pyle with 23 illustrations by him; YOUMA, A STORY, PART II by Lafcadio Hearn with an illustration by Howard Pyle; ANTICLIMAX, A POEM by Richard E. Burton. Other contributors are Brander Matthews, William Dean Howells, Charles Dudley Warner, Laurence Hutton, George Du Maurier, Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer (on Benvenuto Cellini); General Viscount Wolseley (on the standing army of Great Britain); George Parsons Lathrop (on talks with Thomas A. Edison); and much more. First Edition. Softcover. Very Good condition. Illus. by Pyle, Howard. 6.75" wide by 9.75" tall. Great Packaging, Fast Shipping.
Seller: About Books, Henderson, NV, U.S.A.
HEARN, Lafcadio. Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, Binding Aa, Binder's Variant B (*BAL* 7921). Octavo. 194; [2] ads pp. White cloth printed in blue with an over-all pattern. Fragile spine label and spine a little toned, else a near fine copy.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Youma. The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition, BAL binding Aa. Frontispiece. 1 vols. 8vo. BAL 7921; Perkins p.20 Original white cloth printed in blue with an all-over pattern, printed paper label. Binding slightly soiled, spine otherwise very good
Seller: The Old Mill Bookshop, HACKETTSTOWN, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$181.14 + shipping
Description: Very good copy in the original blue on white calico cloth. Paper title plate on cover in VG condition, the one on the spine chipped bottom edge, but all letters of title readable along with most of author's name. Spine bands and panel edges somewhat rubbed and dust-toned as with age. Remains quite well-preserved overall: tight, bright, clean and strong. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 193 pages; Physical desc. : 193 p. : ill. ; 20 cm. Subject: Slaves - West Indies - Fiction. Notes: A novel set in Martinique during the old colonial days, before the outbreak of the 1848. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
HEARN, Lafcadio. Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, Binding Aa, Binder's Variant A (*BAL* 7921). Octavo. 194; [2] ads pp. White cloth printed in blue with an over-all pattern. Fragile spine label and spine a little toned, chip in the margin of p. 107-8, else a near fine copy. In custom cloth dust jacket with leather spine label gilt.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$208.00 + shipping
Description: Very good copy in the original blue on white calico cloth. Paper title plate on cover in VG condition, the one on the spine chipped bottom edge, but all letters of title readable along with most of author's name. Spine bands and panel edges somewhat rubbed and dust-toned as with age. Remains quite well-preserved overall: tight, bright, clean and strong. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 193 pages; Physical desc. : 193 p. : ill. ; 20 cm. Subject: Slaves - West Indies - Fiction. Notes: A novel set in Martinique during the old colonial days, before the outbreak of the 1848. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
HEARN, Lafcadio. YOUMA. , 1890.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Description: HEARN, Lafcadio. YOUMA. The Story of a West-Indian Slave. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1890. First edition. 8vo., blue and white patterned cloth-covered boards; prelims. + 193 + ads. Ex-library, no external markings; occasional ink stamp. Lacking the paper label to spine; very slight soiling to boards. Slight offsetting. Very slighlty cocked; rear hinge starting. Very good overall. Binding Aa, (BAL 7921).
Seller: Boston Book Company, Inc. ABAA, Boston, MA, U.S.A.
Lafcadio Hearn. Youma. Harper & Bros, 1890.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890, first edition. Lafcadio Hearn (1850 1904), was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. In the United States, Hearn is also known for his writings about the city of New Orleans based on his ten-year stay in that city. In Youma, one of Hearns early works, he is exploring the affect of the color-line on the sustaining and collapse of West Indian slavery. Through this short novel, Hearn shows us how deeply intimate the black and white world were intertwined under slavery. It would seem that he was way ahead of his time! We are still trying to get this right. This book, 193 pages, is bound in a patterned calico cloth quite unique. It is in very good condition. Tight and square. No Dust jacket as issued. A very acceptable copy of a very unique and scarce book.
Seller: Raven & Gryphon Fine Books, Hackett's Cove, NS, Canada
Price: US$254.95 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The first UK edition, printed from the US sheets. 8vo. 193pp + xxxii publisher's catalogue at rear. Red cloth, lettered in gold at the spine and with a quite striking black- and gilt-stamped patterning to the backstrip and upper board. Captioned tissue-protected frontispiece. Patterned endpapers lightly browned, and with just a touch of fading to the backstrip and a hint of wear to the spine ends. A very good copy. One of two books Hearn produced during the two years (1987-89) he spent in Martinique at the behest of 'Harper's Magazine'. The following year he moved to Japan, and quickly became a naturalized citizen, assuming the name Koizumi Yakumo and eventually cementing his reputation.
Seller: Clearwater Books, London, United Kingdom
HEARN, Lafcadio. YOUMA; The story of a West-Indian slave. Harper, NY, 1890.
Price: US$263.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo, pp. [4], 193 pp., + 2 pp. publisher"s ads. Bound in white printed clot, 7 3/4 in. x 5 1/8 in., with paper label (sl. soiled on the cover, chipped and browned on the spine.) Collation A, Binder variant A. BAL 7921; Perkins p. 20; Wright III. 2621. First signature loose.
Seller: Second Life Books, Inc., Lanesborough, MA, U.S.A.
HEARN, Lafcadio. Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave. , 1890.
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Description: HEARN, Lafcadio. Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Original Japanese cloth with paper labels on front and spine. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. First edition. BAL 7921. Binding Aa. A very good copy in original cloth.
Seller: G.S. MacManus Co., ABAA, Bryn Mawr, PA, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. YOUMA. The Story of a West-Indian Slave. , 1890.
Price: US$295.00 + shipping
Description: New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. 2 pp undated ads. Original white cloth decorated in blue, with cover and spine label. First Edition of this novel, Hearn's fifth book. Both YOUMA and his fourth, TWO YEARS IN THE FRENCH WEST INDIES (also 1890), were the result of Hearn's 1887-1889 residence in the tropics (particularly on the island of Martinique), so commissioned by Harper's. Youma is a black slave who is raised as a white girl's companion; when the grown white woman dies, Youma becomes responsible for her small daughter -- in the midst of racial riots. The novel was based on an actual occurrence in the Martinique slave rebellion of 1848. The first edition of YOUMA is believed to have consisted of only 1250 copies, bound in a number of different bindings. This one is Blanck's "binding Aa," white cloth printed with blue with labels, believed to be the earliest -- though even this one comes with at least nine different patterns of blue design. The preliminary leaves are in "binder's variant B" -- folded so that the dedication precedes the title (no known priority). This copy is in very good-plus condition (scarcely any wear at all, but the some of the cloth (and the spine label) is sunned). Blanck 7921. Housed in a morocco-backed slipcase, this copy bears the small leather "Blairhame" bookplate of the noted collector Mrs. J. Insley Blair.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Youma. The Story of a West-Indian Slave. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$300.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8vo. 193, [2] pp. Decorative fabric pastedown on cover. Title labels on front board and spine. Browning of spine. Minor chipping of spine label, but printed lettering on this label mostly vanished -- see picture. Light red ink of former owner's name over title on title page.
Seller: White Fox Rare Books, ABAA/ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave.. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Near Fine. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. First Edition. [iv], 193, [1] + [2] ad pp. Illustrated with a frontispiece from an engraving. 7¼x4¾, red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. First Edition, "B" State Binding. In the publisher's "B" state binding, but in the Binder's Variant "A" issue, with the following beginning sequence: Title page (i), Copyright page (ii), Dedication (iii), and a blank page (iv) just before p. 1. A near fine copy with an inked passage from Hearn that is signed "Hearn" at the end, and does closely resemble his hand, but was written in fact by someone else, all on the rear free endpaper. An earlier bookseller has penciled "signed Hearn letter on back"; it is not that, however. See scan of that. BAL 7921. Top page edge dusty, a bare touch of lightening to spine, else near fine. See scans. Bookplate and signature of previous owner Ethelwyn Doolittle adds a bit of association status to this unusual configuration; Miss Doolittle, who posthumously donated her entire library to Hartwick College in 1955, was a good friend of John Burroughs, one of America's greatest and most prolific naturalist authors. Youma, "The story of a West Indian Slave", reflected his sympathy with a paternalistic slave-owning regime Hearn was a unique individual - born in the Greek Ionian Islands to an Irish officer-surgeon father and a Greek mother - who took a wildly meandering course through life, ending his days in 1904 in Tokyo as a Japanese citizen, Yakumo Koizumi. Very handsome example. See scans. - L18n
Seller: Singularity Rare & Fine, Baldwinsville, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$4550.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: TEMPORARILY DISCOUNTED. WAS $4,550. Fine copy of the first edition, first printing, in the Publisher's original decorated cloth with the title label applied to the front board and the title and author label applied to the spine panel (the spine shows some minor sunning, most notably to the spine label due to the dust jacket cut out -- see below, and the boards show some minor corner rubs; multiple pages are unopened, or are only partially opened, on their leading fold, showing the book to have been only partially read -- or possibly entirely unread); in a Very Good + example of the EXCEEDINGLY RARE UNSOPHISTICATED dust jacket -- original to this copy of the book -- with scattered small tears and chips and with the arc over the spine label split on one side and nearly so on the other. The viewer will notice, of course, that the dust jacket is plain as it is from the period when jackets were used not to sell the book but only to keep the book clean until put out for sale. Virtually all of the dust jackets for the book would have been discarded. The viewer also will see that the jacket's spine panel was long ago clipped to reveal the author's last name and the book's title a common warehouse practice which would have made locating the book on the warehouse shelves easier than otherwise would have been the case. At the time this book was issued, dust jackets were not generally used to help sell the book and thus lacked the decoration one sees on later-published books. Such jackets also often did not show one or all of the title, the author, or the publisher all three being absent from this dust jacket, as the dust jacket's sole purpose was to keep the book clean until it was put out (typically without the dust jacket) for sale. Thus, this book is EXCEEDINGLY RARE in the dust jacket and is a part of book publishing history, making it an important copy as well. Lafcadio Hearn is known for this works about Japan, New Orleans, and the West Indies. Hearn, an Irish Immigrant to America, lived in Cincinnati where Hearn, on June 14,1874, married Alethea ("Mattie") Foley, a 20-year-old African American woman, an action in violation of Ohio's then-existing anti-miscegenation law. (Hearn and Foley later separated then attempted reconciliation several times before finally divorcing in 1877.) Subsequent to his divorce, Hearn relocated to New Orleans from which, in 1887, Harper's Magazine sent him to the West Indies as a correspondent. Hearn spent two years in Martinique writing for the magazine and it was there that he gathered enough material to write both "Two Years in the French West Indies" and "Youma, The Story of a West-Indian Slave" each of which was published in 1890, the year that Hearn emigrated to Japan where he died (and was buried) at age 54. In our experience, each of these West Indies works are exceedingly difficult to find on the market in their original dust jackets. (The first edition, first issue, dust jacket for each book would have lacked both lettering and decoration.) Notably, Hearn's West Indies writings constitute the great majority of Hearn's Western Writings. A Fine copy of this notable work of the highly-notable author Lafcadio Hearn in the RARE ORIGINAL PLAIN 19th CENTURY DUST JACKET -- the EARLIEST JACKETED HEARN BOOK on the market at the time this listing was created. An EXCEEDINGLY RARE COPY IN THE ORIGINAL, UNSOPHISTICATED, 19th CENTURY DUST JACKET; A REMARKABLE SURVIVAL. Fine / very good +. Item #895
Seller: Allington Antiquarian Books, LLC (IOBA), Winston-Salem, NC, U.S.A.