Lyrics of Lowly Life

New York: Young People's Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada, 1896.

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Hardcover. First edition, variant issue. Introduction by William Dean Howells. Mission Education Movement Library bookplate on the front pastedown, small paper label on the spine, some fraying to the spine ends, hinges neatly repaired. An about good copy. The author's first commercially published book, this is a scarce variant, probably published simultaneous with, or very soon after, the first edition. The contents of the book seem identical to the first edition, but bound differently, and with "Mission Study Reference Library" stamped on the spine. *BAL* makes no mention of this issue. *OCLC* locates seven copies (erroneously dated 1895). A not lovely copy but a very uncommon variant.

Item #87577

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Item #87577 Lyrics of Lowly Life. Paul Laurence DUNBAR.

Paul Laurence Dunbar
birth name: Paul Laurence Dunbar
born: 6/27/1872
died: 2/9/1906
nationality: USA

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Biography

American author whose reputation rests upon his verse and short stories written in black dialect. He was the first black writer in the United States to attempt to support himself by writing and one of the first to attain national prominence. - Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature [As important as Dunbar was, the claim that he was the first black writer in the U.S. to attempt to support himself by writing ignores several journalists, as well as the much earlier poet George Moses Horton, and perhaps other fascinating and lesser known figures. - BTC]more

Collecting tips:

Dunbar's first two books Oak and Ivy (1892) and Majors and Minors (1895) were both self-published in Ohio while the author was working as an elevator operator, which occupation became the genesis for his poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Both were reportedly issued in editions of 500 copies, both were issued in variant colors of cloth, both are fragile and hard to find in nice condition, and both are expensive. His first commercially published book of poetry Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896), was championed by, and has an introduction by William Dean Howells.

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