[Rarebooks] FS: Three by Julia Peterkin

[Rebekah Bartlett]

Greetings. On offer today are three works by Julia Peterkin, a South Carolina writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, known for her deep knowledge of African-American folklore and the Gullah dialect and culture. Her serious focus on the lives of poor black farmers was controversial at the time; she was admired by black intellectuals and was a known inspiration for William Faulker.

All books are first editions in dustjackets, and quite scarce thus. Ordering and pricing information for set at end of listing.

1) BLACK APRIL, by Julia Peterkin, 1927, Bobbs-Merrill Company, 316 pages. First state, first edition. Book is VG, brown cloth, one corner and spine ends a little frayed, very light shelfwear, dark spot at tail of spine, slightly cocked, owner’s name on flyleaf. Pages and boards nice and clean. DJ and endpapers are in matching deco pattern – gold, rose, and black. DJ fair/poor and fragile, price clipped, just about separated along both flaps and front spine edge, with some chipping along these edges and at corners. Two spine sections professionally reattached,  missing bottom ½” and top 1” and add’l ½” fragment.  Clean  and DJ front is very attractive, in mylar. Ms. Peterkin’s second book, a realistic story of African-Americans running a contemporary plantation in the South Carolina lowlands. Scarce in DJ. $35

2) BRIGHT SKIN, by Julia Peterkin, 1932, Bobbs-Merrill Company, 348 pages.  First edition.  Book is NF+, glossy black covers with bright red and gold design, upper corners and head of spine a little bumped, just the faintest shelfwear to edges. Page 11 a little zealously hand cut (corner trimmed). Very clean, tight binding.  DJ good/fair, also in black, red, and gold, bright except for fading to spine. Wear to edges, back creased, main problems are a long closed tear horizontally across the back and extending across the bottom of the spine, and a closed tear extending 2/3 of the way up the folded edge of the rear flap. Tears professionally consolidated, in mylar. Ms. Peterkins’s fourth book,  the tragic story of a love affair between an African-American boy and a mixed-race girl, set on the same plantation as in “Black April.” Very scarce in DJ. $60

3) A PLANTATION CHRISTMAS, by Julia Peterkin, her sixth book. 1934, Houghton Mifflin Company, 26 pages, illustrated.  About Southern Christmas traditions and rituals. Book is about fine, red cloth with a paper label, a couple very light marks on front board. Illustrated DJ is VG, a little soiling and shelfwear; upper front corner and edge creased, several tiny closed tears. Clean pages, tight binding. Very scarce in DJ. $65

Bibs: Take all three books for $135 postpaid. Please email us if you would like to see photos.

Reservations/orders to: coelacanthbooks at lycos.com

TERMS: All books subject to prior sale. We accept checks/money orders, and credit cards via Paypal. Books are returnable within 10 days, please notify first.

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Rebekah Bartlett & Carey Shain
Coelacanth Books
100 Engamore Ln #T1
Norwood, MA 02062
781-769-0241
coelacanthbooks at lycos.com
http://www.coelacanthbks.com

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