Page 208 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

378 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) LUCAS, CURTIS. Third Ward Newark.
8vo, original cloth in a lightly rubbed dust jacket. Chicago, 1946 [350/500]
FIRST EDITION Curtis’ novel set in Newark, New Jersey’s black “third ward.” Margolies and
Bakish, 391, not in Peavy; Blockson, 6571.
379 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) [MICHEAUX, OSCAR.] The Conquest.
The Story of a Negro Pioneer. Frontispiece of the author and 15 inserted plates; many
of which are out of order. 8vo, variant binding of pale blue cloth lettered in white. Non-
authorial signature, on the front end-paper, otherwise fine copy with almost none of the
usual chipping and flaking to the white lettering.
Lincoln, Nebraska: The Woodruff Press, 1913 [800/1,200]
FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR’S FIRST NOVEL, SELF-PUBLISHED —ONE OF AT LEAST
THREE BINDING VARIANTS. The Conquest is autobiographical, dealing with how the author’s
family was cheated out of their farm in Nebraska. Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) traveled
extensively, promoting his first three novels. He based his second novel, “The Forged Note” on
his experience during a book-selling tour; the third, The Homesteader, was a dramatization of
the Conquest. When the Lincoln Motion Picture Company approached Micheaux in 1915 for
the rights to “The Homesteader,” Micheaux insisted on directing it. When they declined, he
decided to film it himself. It was the first of over thirty films, many of them “short subjects”,
spanning several decades.
380 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) MORRISON, TONI. Group of nine vol-
umes: Sula, Song of Solomon (signed), Beloved (proof), Jazz (proof and advance
reading copy), Race-ing Justice (proof), Whose got Game, Lion or the Mouse
(signed by Morrison and her son Slade), The Book of Mean People (signed buy
Morrison and Pascal LeMaitre), and The Big Box (signed by Morrison and her
son Slade). 8vo’s and 4to’s all in dust jackets and all very good or better.
New York, 1974-2003 [1,500/2,500]
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