Mostly minor edge wear to jacket, worse at spine ends.
Jacket artwork by William Belcher.
£125
London, André Deutsch, 1964.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced 18s.
The first edition, preceding the Heinemann African Writers Series edition, of the author’s first novel. An experimental novel, Okara delves into themes of identity, colonialism and the conflict between modernity and traditional African values.
In stock
Mostly minor edge wear to jacket, worse at spine ends.
Jacket artwork by William Belcher.
African literature
A Journal of African and Afro-American Literature. No.15
Ibadan, Nigeria, For Mbari Club by Longmans of Nigeria, August 1964.
Small folio. Original pictorial wrappers.
An attractive issue of this seminal West African literary journal, with cover design by Jacob Afolabi.
"The steady development of Black Orpheus over the last seven years amounts to a remarkable achievement. It has succeeded in breaking the vicious circle that seems to inhibit the development of a proper reading public by its continued existence, by its very availability; more than that, it has also gone on to establish itself as one of the most important formative influences in modern African literature.…It can be said, without much exaggeration, that the founding of Black Orpheus, if it did not directly inspire new writing in English-speaking Africa, at least coincided with the first promptings of a new, modern, literary expression and re-inforced it by keeping before the potential writer the example of the achievements of the French-speaking and Negro American writers." (Abiola Irele, editor, Journal of Modern African Studies). The magazine ceased publication in 1975.
African literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1948.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 9s6d.
Paton's searing indictment of South African society, published on the eve of the South African government formally institutionalising apartheid, one of the best-known and most acclaimed works in South African literature.
African literature
Johannesburg, A.P.B. Bookstore, 1947.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket.
A solid first edition of this the second book (of three) published in the author's life-time. Bosman is widely regarded as South Africa's greatest short-story writer.
African literature
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1937.
First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, 10s6d.
"In Black Hamlet perhaps for the first time the soul of the negro is laid bare." (jacket blurb). A somewhat chilling psychoanalytical undertaking to delve into the mind of "John", a young man from Manyikaland who had moved to the city.
African literature
London, Heinemann, 1960.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 13s6d.
The first edition of this tale of Lagos corruption by Nigerian writer Achebe, the scarce second volume in his landmark 'African trilogy'.