Signed first edition of Hughes's second novel, about a storefront church in Harlem.
About fine in near-fine jacket.
Price: $1,000.00
"It's a singing, shouting, wailing, drama of the old conflict between blatant Evil and quiet Good, with the Devil driving a Cadillac." – Hughes to Bontemps, on the play that became this novel
Hughes's novel captures the life in late-1950s Harlem; Herb Boyd notes, "While the civil rights movement was beginning to flex its muscles in the South, Harlem was still caught in the throes of an unrelenting slump where unemployment, dilapidated buildings, rampant racism, and police brutality combined to nullify hope and progress among most of the community's destitute residents." First written in ten days as a play, Hughes adapted the work into this acclaimed novel (one English review called it "a small masterpiece"). In 1963 the play version finally debuted on Broadway. A beautiful signed copy.
Read more: Herb Boyd, introduction to Harlem Moon edition; Rampersad, Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914-1967.
New York: The John Day Company, (1958). 8'' x 5''. Original black cloth, pink-stamped spine. In original unclipped ($3.50) yellow pictorial dust jacket designed by Paul Sagsoorian with author photo by Roy DeCarava on rear panel. 188 pages. Signed by Hughes in blue ink across front endpaper. Blind embossed name on second fly leaf. Slight rubbing at jacket spine ends; yellow of spine completely unfaded.
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