Signed first printing of this novel of Kwanzaa holiday cheer, with bookstore label from the Denver-based African American bookstore Hue-Man Experience on rear panel.
Fine in fine jacket.
Price: $200.00
"Why can't people just say, Have a happy? Then I could add anything I want: happy birthday, happy Christmas, happy Kwanzaa, or happy New Year..."
In this novel, Chris is dispirited that his 25 December birthday "often gets lost in the Christmas shuffle" while the family prepares for the start of Kwanzaa on 26 December. Through conversations with friends and scenes of family prep for the holiday, the novel uses story to teach children what Kwanzaa, first celebrated in 1966, is all about. A few years earlier, Walter had won the Coretta Scott King Award for JUSTIN AND THE BEST BISCUITS IN THE WORLD. Walter settled in Denver and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
Also in Denver, Hue-Man Experience was founded in 1984 by Clara Villarosa, one of the most commercially successful Black-owned independent bookstores of the era. Villarosa also founded the African American Booksellers' Association, published a major book on entrepreneurship based on her experiences running a bookstore, and eventually relocated to Harlem.
A terrific association copy, connecting two major Black literary figures of the mountain west.
Read more: Varnell, Women of Consequence: the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame, 207.
New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, (1989). 8.25'' x 5.5''. Original quarter black cloth, red paper boards, gilt-lettered spine. In original unclipped ($10.95) color pictorial dust jacket. Green endpapers. Swahili glossary at rear. [6], 106 pages. Signed by Walter and dated (12/89) on half title. Bookstore label of Hue-Man Experience, "African American Book Store and More," with Denver address, on rear panel of jacket.
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