Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$22500.00 + shipping
Description: New York: Robert O. Ballou, [1933]. 341 pages. 90 full-page, hand-pulled photogravures (including the frontispiece, all reckoned in the pagination). Lacking the extra, laid-in photogravure, being a duplicate of one of the images in the book, that is found with most copies. Early full vellum with gilt spine and cover lettering and gilt centerpiece on the front cover. 29 x 22 cm. Near fine. The photogravures are all in excellent condition. The text shows some very faint offsetting from the plates throughout, and a half dozen or so of the text pages show moderate foxing. Tissue guards, laid-in throughout, appear to be recent replacements. Housed in a plain linen slipcase, evidently of the same vintage as the binding. FIRST EDITION. #44 of 350 COPIES SIGNED BY JULIA PETERKIN AND DORIS ULMANN. One of the most celebrated American photobooks, "Roll, Jordan Roll "provides a stunning portrait of rural African American life in the low country of South Carolina. Most of the photographs were taken at Lane Syne, the plantation home of author, Julia Mood Peterkin (1880-1961), located near Fort Motte in Calhoun County. Peterkin had previously published "Green Thursday" (1924), a collection of short stories, "Black April" (1927), her bestselling first novel, and "Scarlet Sister Mary" (1928), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. Her last novel, "Bright Skin" appeared in 1932. During her short career, she garnered praise from both whites and influential blacks for her sympathetic depictions of African Americans and her rendering of the Gullah dialect. A wealthy New Yorker, Doris Ulmann (1882-1934) studied photography with Clarence H. White, a former colleague of Alfred Stieglitz. She was admired for her technical virtuosity and her photographs were exhibited at prominent studios in New York and other major cities. Much of her early work consisted of portrait photography of notable members of society, including several series on physicians and prominent literary editors. However, her focus soon shifted to studies of rural America, including Shakers and other religious sects, traditional Appalachian craftspeople and musicians, and Native American communities in North Carolina. While she continued to live in New York, where she had an apartment and studio on Park Avenue, Ulmann traveled widely for her work. In the spring of 1929, during one of her trips to the South, she met Julia Peterkin, and the pair quickly formed a deep and lasting friendship. Ulmanns visits to Lane Syne solidified her commitment to documenting African American life and provided her with a rich source of subject matter. The resulting collaboration between author and photographer, "Roll, Jordan Roll", was first issued in a trade edition in December 1933 and received widespread critical acclaim. James Weldon Johnson wrote that ""Roll, Jordan Roll" is the most beautiful and charming book about plantation Negroes of the deep South I that I know of. Doris Ulmanns photographs alone will work a great change in the general ideas about the Southern rural Negro." qt. in Jacobs, "The Life and Photography of Doris Ulmann", p. 126. However, the reproductions of the photographs in the trade edition were disappointing, to Ulmann as much as anyone. This was rectified the following month with the issue of this sumptuous, limited edition, which offered a larger format, text finely printed in letterpress on wove paper, and most importantly, photogravures that did justice to Ulmanns camera work. Andrew Roth writes, "Ullmans soft-focus photos -- rendered as tactile as charcoal drawings in the superb gravure reproductions here -- straddle Pictorialism and Modernism even as they appear to dissolve into memory" --"The Book of 101 Books : Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century", p. 78. IN ADDITION TO THE SUPERB QUALITY OF THE REPRODUCTIONS, THE LIMITED EDITION ALSO OFFERED TWENTY IMAGES THAT DID NOT APPEAR IN THE TRADE EDITION. The original publisher's binding for the deluxe editio
Seller: Eilenberger Rare Books, LLC, I.O.B.A., Durham, NC, U.S.A.
Price: US$28000.00 + shipping
Description: Hardcover in original quarter white linen and brown paper-covered beveled boards. Housed in a modern custom clamshell folio box covered in brown cloth w/ leather spine label. This is hand-numbered (in ink on the colophon) copy #124 of 350 (327 sold) of the First Limited Edition. Signed by author and photographer. 8.5" x 11.75", 341 pp, 90 full-page, hand-pulled copper photogravures with modern tissue guards. The plates are all immaculate with virtually no markings of any kind on the rag sheets and with only slight rubbing on the front panel and rear endpaper. Julia Peterkin won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Scarlet Sister Mary in 1929. "No happier collaboration could be conceived than that of Julia Peterkin and Doris Ulmann in a book which has for its subject the colorful life of the American Negro of the South. Mrs. Peterkin's Scarlet Sister Mary, and Bright Skin have won for her a deserved reputation as the outstanding chronicler of the American black man's life. Doris Ulmann's photographic studies have similarly made her a foremost figure in the field of art. This book is a powerful picturization, in two mediums, of the Southern Negro. Julia Peterkin says of the book: 'I have tried to put down here things which will give as full a picture of Negro life in the South as I am able to give, matters which I want to see in print before they are forgotten."
Seller: Jim Crotts Rare Books, LLC, Clemmons, NC, U.S.A.
Price: US$28500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Quarto, [10], 13-341pp, [1]. Original brown paper-covered boards, three-quarter white linen corners and spine. Title in gilt on spine, portrait stamped in blind to front cover. Top edge gilt. Solid text block, foxing to cloth, some rubbing to gilt title on spine. Housed in the publisher's brown slipcase, small points of restoration with archival glue to corners. Complete with 90 full-page photographs depicting former enslaved peoples, their families, and their homes. All plates remain vibrant, most lacking tissue guards. Includes an original photograph by Ulmann, laid-in at front with her signature in pencil on the bottom right corner. Stated on limitation page: "Of this special edition of Roll, Jordan, Roll, 350 copies, each numbered and signed by Julia Peterkin and Doris Ulmann, have been printed by letterpress and copper-plate photogravure. Of these 327 are for sale. This is copy number 122, signed by both Peterkin and Ulmann on the colophon. This collaboration between Ulmann and Peterkin focuses on a group of former slaves and their descendants in the Gullah region of South Carolina. This is the first appearance of the text, followed by the first trade edition published the same year.
Seller: The First Edition Rare Books, LLC, Cincinnati, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$30000.00 + shipping
Description: Quarto, [12], 13-341 pages. Good. Bound in publisher's three quarter white linen, embossed brown paper boards, spine with gilt lettering. Top edge gilt. Some staining and discoloration to spine, particularly along hinges, from water. Tide-marks along upper and lower gutter throughout volume, in some cases touching the plates. Lacking publisher's slipcase. Illustrated with 90 full-page, hand-pulled copper photogravures after photographs by Ulmann depicting the formerly enslaved alongside their descendants in the Gullah coastal region of South Carolina. All plates with tissue guards, one tissue guard loose. Some offsetting from photogravures, as usual. With the additional signed photogravure loose within, a duplicate of the photogravure on page 129. Some offsetting to front pastedown and endpaper from photogravure. "When all the sisters' feet are washed, the basins and towels are handed over to the brothers, who wash each other's feet." [page 124]. WP consignment. Shelved case 3. "Peterkin, a popular novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929, was born in South Carolina and raised by a black nursemaid who taught her the Gullah dialect before she learned standard English. She married the heir to Lang Syne, one of the state's richest plantations, which became the setting for Roll, Jordan, Roll, and its black population the subject of Ullman's photograph.Ulmann's soft-focus photos - rendered as tactile as charcoal drawings in the superb gravure reproductions here - straddle Pictorialism and Modernism even as they appear to dissolve into memory" [Andrew Roth, The Book of 101 Books, pages 78-79]. 1367221. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$35000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Signed limited first edition. Copy number 346 of only 350 copies, of which 327 were offered for sale, signed by both photographer Doris Ulmann and Julia Peterkin. Printed by letter press and with 90 superb tissue-guarded full-page copperplate hand-pulled photogravure plates and with an additional original signed photogravure. Bound in publisher's original brown paper boards over half cream cloth with spine lettered in gilt. Lacking the original slipcase but housed in a custom cloth chemise case; tissue guards replaced though originals are present and laid into a custom-made compartment in the slipcase. Near Fine. Neatly recased, light rubbing and color retouching to covers, contents lightly foxed at edges. Toning, light edge wear and light soiling to additional signed photogravure. "Ulmann's photographic collaboration with Julia Peterkin focuses on the lives of former slaves and their descendants on a plantation in the Gullah coastal region of South Carolina. Peterkin, a popular novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929, was born in South Carolina and raised by a black nursemaid who taught her the Gullah dialect before she learned standard English. She married the heir to Lang Syne, one of the state's richest plantations, which became the setting for Roll, Jordan, Roll. Ulmann's soft-focus photos-rendered as tactile as charcoal drawings in the superb gravure reproductions here-straddle Pictorialism and Modernism even as they appear to dissolve into memory" (Roth, 101 Books).
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$65000.00 + shipping
Description: Signed limited first edition. Author Julia Peterkin's own copy, number #3 of only 350 copies, of which 327 were offered for sale, signed by both photographer Doris Ulmann and Peterkin on the limitation page. Presuambly the first few copies were given to the publisher, author, and photographer. Letter of provenance from a descendant of Peterkin laid in. Printed by letter press and with 90 superb tissue-guarded full-page copperplate hand-pulled photogravure plates and with an additional original signed photogravure. 342 pp. Bound in publisher's original brown paper boards over half cream cloth with spine lettered in gilt. Lacking slipcase. Near Fine with light rubbing and soiling to boards, front hinge a bit free, light foxing to contents, typical offsetting from photos. A very clean, attractive copy. "Ulmann's photographic collaboration with Julia Peterkin focuses on the lives of former slaves and their descendants on a plantation in the Gullah coastal region of South Carolina. Peterkin, a popular novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929, was born in South Carolina and raised by a black nursemaid who taught her the Gullah dialect before she learned standard English. She married the heir to Lang Syne, one of the state's richest plantations, which became the setting for Roll, Jordan, Roll. Ulmann's soft-focus photos-rendered as tactile as charcoal drawings in the superb gravure reproductions here-straddle Pictorialism and Modernism even as they appear to dissolve into memory" (Roth, 101 Books).
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.