Page 209 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

381 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) THURMAN, WALLACE. Negro Life in
New York’s Harlem. 64 pages. 16mo, original printed wrappers, No 494 in the Little
Blue Book Series. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Co,
[1927] [400/600]
FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR’S FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK. Wallace Thurman was one of
the leading literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance. He edited the legendary Renaissance
rarity “Fire,” as well as several other publications, and authored several novels, and plays;
among them: of “Infants of the Spring,” and “Blacker the Berry.”
382 ● (LITERATURE AND POETRY.) THURMAN, WALLACE, EDITOR. Fire!!
A Quarterly Devoted to Younger Negro Artists. Artwork throughout by Aaron
Douglas and Richard Bruce; 48 pages. 4to, original red and black stiff wrappers by Aaron
Douglas; chip to the fore-edge of the yapped covers; spine with about one inch parted at
the bottom, remaining firm AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY, SIGNED BY THURMAN AND OTHER
CONTRIBUTORS. NEW YORK, [1926] [5,000/7,500]
THE RARE FIRST AND ONLY ISSUE OF THIS HARLEM RENAISSANCE LITERARY LAND-
MARK: SIGNED BY THE EDITOR, WALLACE THURMAN, AS WELL AS RICHARD BRUCE
NUGENT, ZORA NEALE HURSTON, AARON DOUGLAS, ARNA BONTEMPS, HELENE
JOHNSON AND GWENDOLYN BENNETTIncludes a sub-section titled “Flame from the Dark
Tower, a Selection of Poetry” by Countee Cullen, Edward Silvera, Langston Hughes, Helene
Johnson and Waring Cuney. Also included is a play by Zora Neale Hurston, and numerous
other contributions by the leading young voices of the Harlem Renaissance. “Fire,” meant to be
a quarterly, did not survive beyond this first number. The production of “Fire” was an expen-
sive proposition; the high quality paper and printing alone would have made it difficult to see a
profit. Thurman and the other editors were all supposed “kick in” for the cost of printing etc
and would theoretically share in the profits later. As it turned out, Thurman who had borrowed
money toward the printing expenses from the Harlem Community Church, and the Mutual
League got mugged on his way home and even had his clothing stolen. We could not find an
exact figure for the printing run, but it was probably under five hundred; and in a terrible stroke
of irony, about three hundred copies were consumed by a fire in the basement of the building
where Thurman and the others had stored them.
382