A wonderful first edition of Harlem Renaissance writer and publisher Dorothy West’s first novel, which is focused on placing first, second, and third generations of Black Bostonians and their class and racial struggles in a city full of white aristocrats like the Cabots and Lowells. Inspired by her mother’s life and her own middle class upbringing, West’s protagonist is young Cleo Judson, a Southerner born in a sharecropper’s cabin who arrives in Boston and sets her sights high despite all barriers, and marries the Black Banana King of Boston. Through her pursuit of her wishes and desires, West shows wariness toward capitalism, draws attention to colorism in giving Cleo light skin, but also highlights the importance of self-determination and will, giving Cleo permission to go against gender norms. An energetic and elegant novel that satirises the Black bourgeoisie and patriarchal structures.

It’s not a surprise that the Black women of the Harlem Renaissance struggled to get their work in print, or stay in print. West’s novel is one of only a handful by Black American women published in the 1940s and has been republished many times, most recently by The Feminist Press.

Very good condition. Extremely scarce in dust jacket.

First edition. Octavo. iv. 347pp. Price-clipped dust jacket with wear to edges and spine, several one cm chips at top and bottom edges. Some creases and folds at edges, scuffs here and there, still colourful and bright.