Page 201 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

365 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) HAMMON, JUPITER. WEGELIN,
OSCAR. Jupiter Hammon, American Negro Poet, Selection from his Writings
and a Bibliography by Oscar Wegelin. Frontispiece and five facsimiles, ONE OF EIGHT
COPIES PRINTED ON JAPAN VELLUM. New York: Charles Heartman, 1915 [2,500/3,500]
FIRST EDITION THUS, ONE OF ONLY EIGHT COPIES, PRINTED ON JAPAN VELLUM, OF A
TOTAL EDITION OF NINETY-NINE COPIES. Jupiter Hammon, (1711-circa 1805) African
American slave-poet who, in 1761 became the first African American to be published in North
America. Born in 1711 in a house now known as Lloyd Manor in Lloyd Harbor, NY (Town
of Huntington), Hammon was held by four generations of the Lloyd family. His parents were
both slaves held by the Lloyds, but unlike most slaves, his father, named “Opium,” had learned
to read and write. The Lloyds encouraged young Jupiter as well to attend school, where he too
learned to read and write. As an adult, he worked for the Lloyds as a domestic servant, clerk,
farmhand, artisan, and devout Christian.
Hammon’s first published poem, “An Evening Thought. Salvation by Christ with Penitential
Cries . . .” (1760) appeared as a broadside in 1761. He published three other poems and
three sermon-essays, portions of all appear in this volume. Although never emancipated,
Hammon participated in Revolutionary War groups such as the “Spartan Project” There on
September 24, 1786, he delivered his “Addrshould ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody
to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves.” He also said that, while he personally had
no wish to be free, he did wish others, especially “the young negroes, were free.”
366 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) HIMES, CHESTER B. If He Hollers, Let
Him Go. 249 pages. Small 8vo, original smooth black cloth, lettered in a worn yellow
dust jacket with two long closed tears on the rear panel and some general light soil and
wear at the spine extremities. Garden City: Doubleday Doran, 1945 [4,000/6,000]
FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR’S FIRST BOOK, a presentation copy inscribed for his literary
agent: “For Paul Gitlin whom I consider a friend and I hope he will protect my affairs for me.
Sept. 5, 1970, New York City.” In addition to representing Himes, Gitlin also represented the
estates of such notables as Thomas Wolfe, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, Ayn Rand, and
Raymond Chandler.
366