Page 197 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

358 ● (PERIODICALS.) [DELANY, MARTIN ROBINSON, FRANCES ELLEN
HARPER, et al. The Anglo-African Magazine. 400 pages. Tall royal 8vo, modern 1/4
polished black calf with triple gilt spine bands, and floral tools within four panels, in period
style; paper evenly toned. Contemporary ownership signature of Ellis Potter on end-
papers.
New York: Thomas Hamilton, 1859 [12,000/17,000]
FIRST EDITION, PRINTING THE FIRST PUBLISHED STORY BY AN AFRICAN AMERICAN
WOMAN, An almost complete run (only three other issues were produced from January-March,
1860) of this rare and important African American periodical. Contains contributions from
Frances E. W. Harper, Martin R. Delany, John Mercer Langsrtonm, Edward Wilmot BLyden,
James McCune Smith, J.W. C. Pennington, Bishop Daniel Payne, Sarah Mapps Douglass
and William C. Nell. Two major contributions stand out: The Two Offers, by Frances E.W.
Harper (referred to here as Frances Ellen Watkins, which appears complete in the September-
October issues is the first published short story by an African American woman writer. This
volume also contains a substantial portion of Martin R. Delany’s novel “Blake, or the Huts of
America.” Delany’s work is the first novel by an African American to be published in the
United States. Chapters 1 through 23 and 29 through 31 were serialized in the January to
June issues. They were later reprinted, along with the remainder of Part One in the Weekly
African American in the 1860’s. Unfortunately the novel was never published in its totality
until 1970. The only novels by African Americans that precede Blake, Clotel and The Garies
and Their Friends, were both published previously in London and not published in the United
States until 1864 and 1969 (!) respectively. Other articles include “On the Fourteenth Query
of Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia,” by James McCune Smith; “Colored American
Patriots” by William C. Nell, a poem and an essay by Frances Harper and a series The Afric
American Picture Gallery by “Ethiop.” The ownership signature of Ellis Potter may belong to
an African American by that name who served as the Recording Secretary of the African
Civilization Society of New York. The latter was an African American backed group that sent
Martin R. Delany and Robert Campbell to explore the Niger Valley for settlement and cotton
growth in 1859. The Society was supported by Henry Highland Garnett, Reverend Charles
Ray, James Madison Whitfield and surprisingly many others.