Bronze: A Book of Verse
Boston: B. J. Brimmer Company, 1922.
First edition, first printing. Signed by Georgia Douglas Johnson on the front free endpaper and inscribed to author and playwright Kenneth Phillips Britton. [iv], 101 pp. Bound in publisher's brown cloth with paper title label; one of two variants of undetermined priority. Near Fine, with light rubbing to cloth at corners and spine ends, light spotting to top of top edge of textblock, paper spine label and pages toned, hinge following front free endpaper is slightly exposed. Scarce.
The second book of poetry by the influential Harlem Renaissance figure and one of the earliest female African American playwrights, in which she explores motherhood and being a woman of color. Johnson's husband did not approve of her literary ambitions and insisted she focus on domestic affairs. He died three years after the publication of this book; Johnson was left a widow at age 45, struggling to support two teenage boys. She wrote an estimated 28 plays, most of which were unpublished during her lifetime due to her gender and race, as well as her refusal to give the plays what she considered unrealistically happy endings.
Price: $35,000.00