Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
DUNBAR, Paul Laurence. When Malindy Sings. Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1903.
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition. Frontispiece and photographic illustrations by the Hampton Institute Camera Club. Decorations by Margaret Armstrong. Bookplate of John Needels Chester, and an old bookseller's description, both on front pastedown, a small clipping mentioning Dunbar's house on the front fly, corners a bit bumped, very good or better. Nicely Inscribed by Dunbar with a passage in dialect : "Ef you only got de powah fer to blow a little whistle, stay among de people wid de whistlers. Paul Laurence Dunbar. January, 1904." A title seldom found signed.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, 144 pages. Bound in publisher's pictorial cloth binding, with gilt titling and pink and green vines to spine. Boards show mild wear and rubbing, and chipping to head and tail of spine. The front free end paper has cracking at gutter from glue. Inscribed by Dunbar on the second free end paper, with a selection from his poem Philosophy. A second ownership inscription, dated 1903, appears below Dunbar's. CX Consignment. Shelved in Case 0. Dunbar is considered the first African-American poet to earn national distinction and acceptance, and one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. He passed away of tuberculosis in 1906 at the age of 33, making any signed copies of his books, especially of his later works, incredibly scarce. This first printing of When Malindy Sings is signed by Dunbar, and includes an extensive inscription in Dunbar's hand, transcribing a selection from his poem Philosophy: "It's easy enough to titter w'en de stew is smokin' hot, But hit's mighty ha'd to giggle w'en dey's nuffin in de pot." Interestingly, he spells out "enough'" rather than using the published version '"nough" 1345988. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.