Page 165 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

296 ● DU BOIS, W. E. B. The Philadelphia Negro, a Social Study. Together with
a Special Report on Domestic Service by Isabel Eaton, A.M. Diagram, two folding
charts. Large, thick 4to, original publisher’s green cloth with morocco spine label; some
rubbing with loss of cloth at the spine extremities; bookplate of the Wrights. SIGNED BY DU
BOIS ON THE FRONT FREE END-PAPER . Philadelphia: Published for the University, 1899
[6,000/8,000]
FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY DU BOIS. Issued in both wrappers and hardcover issue the book-
plate for “The Wrights” is possibly from “The Wrights” who re-published Phillis Wheatley’s
Poems on Various Subjects in 1909. Du Bois’ monumental; study of the social conditions in
which the Negroes of Philadelphia’s South Ward lived, was the first such sociological study ever
undertaken. Du Bois’ method involved a literal door to door, house-by-house canvas of the
South Ward. The conditions he found among the urban black population had a profound effect
on him, reflected in this study and his subsequent work. Horace Bumstead, President of
Atlanta University was impressed enough to offer Du Bois an appointment in sociology and
directorship at the University that resulted in the “Atlanta University Studies of the Negro
Problem.” Blockson 101 #48.
297 ● DU BOIS, W. E. B. The College Bred Negro: Report of a Social Study
Made under the Direction of Atlanta University. 115, [iii] pages. 8vo, original robin’s
egg blue printed wrappers, stapled. AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY.
Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, 1900 [1,000/1,500]
ONE OF SEVERAL IMPORTANT SOCIAL STUDIES CONDUCTED UNDER W.E .B. DU BOIS
WHILE TEACHING AT ATLANTA UNIVERSITY. Partington 2327.
298 ● DU BOIS, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folks. Portrait frontispiece. Tall 8vo,
original green cloth blocked in black; light rubbing to the extremities, with no loss of
cloth. Chicago: McClurg, 1904 [3,500/5,000]
FOURTH EDITION, INSCRIBED WITH A FINE ASSOCIATION”To Miss Dora Cole with all
good wished from W.E.B, N.G. and N.Y Du Bois, June 15, 1904.” (Du Bois’ underlining).
An uncommon inscription indeed from the usually formal Du Bois, who includes his wife,
Nina Gomer, as well as his daughter Nina Yolanda’s names in the greeting.
In 1913, W.E.B. Du Bois was involved in the New York Emancipation Exposition, conceived
“to tell a continuous and complete story of fifty years of unusual progress among colored
Americans.” In fact Du Bois was at the center of the Exposition, and had conceived a pageant
to be called “The People of Peoples and their Gifts to Men.” The script was written by Du
Bois, the music by Colonel Charles Young (from Du Bois’ Wilberforce days.) and was choreo-
graphed by Dora Cole Norman, sister of composer Bob Cole. Cole, a noted vaudevillian, was a
frequent collaborator with Rosamond and James Weldon Johnson and was once a part of Black
Patti’s troupe. The date of 1904 (before Dora Cole was married) indicates a long friendship
with the Coles.
299 ● DU BOIS, W.E.B. John Brown. Portrait frontispiece. 406 pages. 8vo, original
blue cloth, lettered in gilt on the upper cover and spine; extremities very lightly rubbed.
Philadelphia: Jacobs, 1909 [500/750]
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF DU BOIS’ SCARCER BOOKS. Printed in a very small run, Du
Bois’ biography of John Brown is part of Jacobs Publisher’s American Crisis
Biographies series, edited by Ellis Paxton Oberholzer.
[ LOTS 296, 298, 299 SEE ILLUSTRATIONS OVERLEAF]