The Ways of White Folks
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1934.
First edition, first printing. [xiii], 248, [2] pp. Bound in publisher's orange cloth boards with decorative stamping in black, orange topstain; lacking the dust jacket. Near Fine with light wear and soiling and moderate fading to covers and topstain, small bump to lower corner of front board, and small stray pencil mark to rear board. Contents lightly thumbed, contemporary ownership signature and offsetting from slip previously laid in to front endsheet. Dickinson 9.
The stylish first edition of Langston Hughes' short story collection, which reviewed well but sold poorly. Readers shied away from Hughes' probing examination of White misconduct; the story "Home" had previously been rejected by an Atlantic editor who asked why authors thought it their function to "to lay the flesh bare and rub salt in the wound." The collection is now considered a Harlem Renaissance classic.
Price: $750