Page 198 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

359 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) DUNBAR, ALICE. The Goodness of St
Roque. 224 pages. Small 8vo, original pictorial green cloth, blocked in silver and black on
the upper cover and spine; binding very slightly skewed; contemporary non-authorial gift
presentation on the front free end-paper relating to St Roque; triangular chip from the
upper margin of page 23. New York: Dodd Mead, 1899 [3,500/5,000]
FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR’S RARE SECOND BOOK, following a privately printed col-
lection of prose and poetry. The book that established Mrs. Dunbar’s reputation as something
more than Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s wife. The dark tone and setting of these stories of old New
Orleans is somewhat reminiscent of writing of Kate Chopin, a contemporary of Dunbar. This
collection of short stories is the first to be published by An African American woman. It is
unfortunate that Alice Dunbar’s enormous talent was overshadowed by her husband Paul
Lawrence Dunbar. After her husband’s passing, Dunbar produced The Dunbar Speaker and
Entertainer, the first such collection to be printed. A rare book, OCLC locates not a single copy
of the first edition in American libraries.
360 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) DUNBAR, PAUL LAURENCE. Folks
From Dixie. Frontispiece and seven additional plates. Small 8vo, original pictorial cloth
with an inset illustration on the upper cover; Re-cased with the original spine laid down.
Inscribed and signed by both Dunbar and his wife Alice Moore Dunbar.
New York: Dodd Mead, 1898 [600/800]
FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED: “very sincerely yours Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alice Moore
Dunbar” (in her own hand), Washington, July 13, 1898. Whoever this was inscribed was
probably a close friend of the Dunbars, because this would have been among the earliest copies.
359