Cane
New York: Boni and Liveright, 1923.
First edition, first printing of one of the most influential works of the Harlem Renaissance. 239 pp. Bound in publisher's grey cloth stamped in marigold and dark blue; lacking the dust jacket. Near Fine with light wear to tips, trivial soiling to spine, and offsetting at endsheets and preliminary sheets. Front free endpaper chipped and slightly wormed, rear end paper lacking, tidemark at top edge of rear pastedown. A much nicer copy than normally encountered. Toomer's collection of 13 prose vignettes set in Washington D.C. and Georgia, initially overlooked when first published. "His friend Langston Hughes declared, 'Cane contains the finest prose written by a Negro in America and, like the singing of Robeson, it is truly racial.'" Blockson 63, Perry 431, Schomburg p.13. Item #140948004
Price: $12,500