For My People

New York: Limited Editions Club, 1992. Hardcover. Red Japanese linen over heavy boards. Fine in near fine clam shell box covered in black cotton with red leather inset on box front cover printed in black. Catlett, Elizabeth. Unpaginated, Elephant Folio, 55 x 46 cm. Limited edition, copy 184 of 500, signed by Margaret Walker and Elizabeth Catlett. Illustrated with five full-page color lithographs by Elizabeth Catlett. 1992 marked the 50th anniversary of Walker's poem published by the Yale University Press with a Foreword by Stephen Vincent Benet. Both author and illustrator, born in the South during the first twenty years of the 20th century endured the virulent discrimination against Black Americans. Both from well educated middle class families, their lives intersected at the State University of Iowa as roommates studying for a Master in Arts. Two powerful women combine to capture the African-American experience with poetry and visual imagery. erWalker notes, "I have always wanted my art to service my people—to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential. We have to create an art for liberation and for life." Printed by the Bixlers on French-made Arches paper. Each of the poem's ten stanzas stands on right hand page; the entire book hand-sewn. Slight fade to front cover box.