Robeson Negro

Goode Robeson, Eslanda. PAUL ROBESON NEGRO.
The biography of Paul Robeson, Negro spiritualist singer. He is most well remembered for his rendition of Ol' Man River in the musical Showboat. Also looks at the relationship with his father who was a preacher.

1930. Victor Gollancz. First. VG. 9.5x6.5.153pp. 16 b/w photos. 501g.

[SW: negro spiritualist singer Showboat musical preacher]

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Locke, Alain and Gregory Montgomery, editors. PLAYS OF NEGRO LIFE: A Source Book of Native American Drama. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927.
HC 1st ed -

First edition. A significant and uncommon anthology of the Harlem Renaissance, containing 20 one act plays of the 'contemporary Negro theatre' - plays both by African American writers like Jean Toomer and Georgia Douglas Johnson and others like Eugene O'Neill (who is represented by 2 plays - 'Emperor O'Neill' and 'The Dreamy Kid.' Other playwrights represented include Paul Green, Ridgely Torrence, Ernest H. Culbertson, Willis Richardson, Frank H. Wilson, John Matheus, Eulalie Spence, John W. Rodgers, Jr, Thelma Duncan and Richard Bruce. Information given on the initial performances of the various plays. Introduction on 'The Drama of Negro Life' by Locke and a 'Chronology of the Negro Theatre' by Gregory. Illustrated with both photographs (including those of both Charles Gipson and Paul Robeson in the role of Emperor Jones) and stylized woodcuts and decorations by Aaron Douglas. Bibliography. 430 pp. Ex-library with markings and significant reading wear, including a rebacked spine, with library call letters on it, reinforced hinges. Not a pretty copy, but a very sturdy and readable one, and priced significantly lower than usual.

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Robeson, Eslanda Goode: Paul Robeson Negro, London Victor Gollancz 1930
Good

Black US singer and actor. Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of a Presbyterian minister and schoolteacher, and was a leading athlete at Rutgers University. Although he attended Columbia University Law School, he abandoned his career as a lawyer and became an actor. Early stage appearances included Voodoo (1922) with Mrs Patrick Campbell. Critical acclaim, however, came with Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924), followed by The Emperor Jones (1925), in which his reputation as a singer as well as an actor was established. The screen version of this play provided his first film role in 1933. This was followed by several films in Britain, including the memorable Sanders of the River (1935), Song of Freedom (1936), and Proud Valley (1940). Returning to the USA he toured successfully in Othello throughout the 1940s. However his outspoken political comments brought him to the attention of the Un-American Activities Committee and his passport was revoked in 1950. It was returned in 1958, and the following year he came to London to sing at the Albert Hall and to appear at Stratford in Othello. After touring Europe he returned to the USA, where he lived in relative seclusion until his death. As well as his film and stage successes, Robeson is remembered for his remarkable singing of 'Ole Man River' from Jerome Kern's Showboat, filmed in 1936. Rebound in strong library binding. First Edition No Jacket Cloth 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Ex-Library

[SW: BEATS JAZZ BLUES AMERICAN HISTORY BIOGRAPHY MUSICOLOGY Paul Robeson]

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Sarah L. Delany; A. Elizabeth Delany; Amy Hill Hearth: Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, Dell 1994

Paperback Very Good 0440220424 Amazon.com "I never thought I'd see the day that the world would want to hear what two old Negro women have to say," says Bessie Delany. But Bessie and her sister, Sadie, born in 1893 and 1891, saw plenty, by eating a low-fat, high-vegetable diet and outliving the "old Rebby [rebel] boys" who once almost lynched Sadie. This remarkable memoir was a long-running bestseller, spawning a Broadway play and adding to their list of seasoned acquaintances (Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Cab Calloway) such spring chickens as Hillary Clinton. Born to a former slave whose owners broke the law by teaching him to read, the sisters got a solid education. North Carolina was paradise--despite the Rebbies--until Jim Crow reared its hideous head. The girls had loved to ride in the front of the trolley because the wind in their hair made them feel free, but one day the conductor sadly ordered them to the back. The family moved to New York, where Bessie became the town's second black woman dentist and Sadie the first black woman home-ec teacher. They befriended everyone who was anyone in the Harlem Renaissance (their brother won the 1925 Congressional primary there), pursued careers instead of husbands, and lived peacefully together, despite their differences. Sadie was more peaceable, like Booker T. Washington, while Bessie was a W.E.B. Du Bois-style militant. They're funny: Bessie notes that blacks must be sharp to get ahead, "But if you're average and white, honey, you can go far. Just look at Dan Quayle. If that boy was colored he'd be washing dishes somewhere." And they are wise: Sadie says, "Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet." --This text refers to the Paperback edition. From Publishers Weekly In this remarkable and charming oral history, two lively and perspicacious sisters, aged 101 and 103, reflect on their rich family life and their careers as pioneering African American professionals. Brief chapters capture Sadie's warm voice ("Now, I was a 'mama's child' ") and Bessie's fiestiness ("I'm alive out of sheer determination, honey!"). The unmarried sisters, who live together, tell of growing up on the campus of a black college in Raleigh, N.C., where their father was an Episcopal priest, and of being too independent for the men who courted them. With parental influence far stronger than that of Jim Crow, they joined professions--Sadie teaching domestic science, Bessie practicing dentistry. In 1920s Harlem they mixed with black activists and later were among the first to integrate the New York City suburb of Mount Vernon. While their account of the last 40 years is sketchy, their observations about everything from black identity to their yoga exercises make them worthwhile company. Freelancer Hearth, who wrote an initial story on the sisters in the New York Times in 1991, has deftly shaped and contextualized their reflections. Photos. 35,000 first printing; first serial to American Heritage; BOMC alternate. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. ..Rare Books make rare gifts... Experience, Quality, Value..

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