Between the Covers

Hardcover. First edition. A bit of scuffing at the bottom of the boards else near fine in a bright, very good dustwrapper with some slight spine fading and some modest chipping to the spine ends. Additionally this copy is Signed by both authors – this is one of only three books we have seen signed by Thurman. A very nice copy of this seldom encountered novel, a somewhat sensationalistic story of what happens behind the scenes at a big city hospital. Thurman was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. His residence in Harlem was referred to as “Niggerati Manor” and was one of the central gathering places for the Harlem intellectual elite. Born in Salt Lake City and educated there and in Los Angeles, his brilliance and background allowed him to participate in and simultaneously critique the Harlem Renaissance with unique perspective. He was chosen by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and others to be the editor of *Fire!!*, the short lived (one issue) magazine which was probably the high point of the young intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance. The two novels he wrote during that time, *The Blacker the Berry* and *The Infants of Spring*, were defining works of Renaissance literature. *The Interne*, written with Furman, a white author Thurman met while working for the publisher Macaulay, is a scathing indictment of the bureaucracy and corruption of urban hospitals as seen by the novel’s hero, an idealistic young doctor. Thurman left Harlem for Hollywood and worked on screenplays, including *Tomorrow’s Children* starring Sterling Holloway, a story drawn from *The Interne* about court-ordered sterilization of the poor. At the time Thurman's weekly studio paycheck of $250 was, according to one source, the highest salary paid to any African-American in the United States. He returned to Harlem for a visit in 1934. An alcoholic and long plagued with ill-health, he collapsed in the middle of his reunion party and was taken to the very hospital he condemned in *The Interne*. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, he languished there for six months before finally dying on Christmas, 1934, at the age of 32. Rare in jacket and exceptionally so signed.

Item #50441