Magnolia Leaves
Tuskeegee, Alabama / Charleston, South Carolina: Tuskeegee Institute / Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., 1897.
First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's yellow beige cloth over beveled boards, decorated in green and lettered in gilt, with all page edges colored red; introductory written by Booker T. Washington and photographic portrait of Fordham's home inserted at front. Good, with cloth soiled, mottling and worn at top edge of covers. Inner hinges cracked, former owner inscription to front pastedown and pages toned. Fordham was an African American poet and educator, who ran a school for African American children during the civil war. She later taught for the American Missionary Association, an abolitionist group in Albany, New York. Not much else is known about her personal life beyond what can be extracted from her poetry. Fordham's poems are written in a style similar to those of contemporary white female poets, with tones and themes touching on motherhood, moral virtues, sentimentality, death, patriotism and Christianity. Fordham's poems are preceded by a one-page introduction by Booker T. Washington, in which he enthusiastically encourages African Americans to take up poetry, and endorses the book, believing it will "do its part to awaken the Muse of Poetry which I am sure slumbers in the very many Sons and Daughters of the Race of which the author of this work is a representative." Scarce.
Price: $3,800.00