Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family [Inscribed to Sybil Harriet Landau]
- SIGNED
- New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1956
New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1956. First Edition. First Printing, with "First Edition" and the publisher's "I-F" code on copyright page. Octavo (21.75cm); dark grey cloth boards, with titles stamped in white on spine, and publisher's logo in white at lower front cover; dustjacket; [x],276,[2]pp. Inscribed by the author on the front endpaper: "August 28, 1964 / Especially for Sybil / with affection and admiration / Pauli Murray." Landau was a Jewish feminist attorney and educator in New York, who spent much of her career championing civil rights and lesbian causes, and was an early girlfriend of Audre Lorde's. Light wear to spine ends, pinpoint wear to lower board edges, some offsetting to endpapers, and a few tiny indentations to right edge of textblock; about Near Fine. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $3.50), spine-sunned, shelfworn, with toning to panels, a few small tears, some losses to spine ends (none affecting lettering), and a faint splash mark to spine on verso; Good to Very Good.
Murray's first major literary work, a realistic and convincing representation of the Black experience, and an account of both her North Carolina family and childhood and her search for identity in her past. "Her book, in which history and literature intersect, is the product of a lively imagination and four years of devoted research in oral and documented history. She points out that it is the biography of her grandparents, the story of three generations of a family "involved in a crucial turning point in our nation's history." Much of the saga centers around the racial conflicts through which the family worked out its destiny, focusing on the courage, strength, and fearlessness in the face of danger that all members of the group exhibited. The women, both black and white, are noteworthy in their independence and recognition of moral duty, and the men are stalwart, and refuse to accept any status less than that of honorable men. Race and sex are explosive elements of suffering and shame that Murray exorcises through her honest confrontation of them, while education and tenacious survival are the foundations on which she builds a strong and positive indentity" (DLB Vol.41: Afro-American Poets Since 1955, p.249.). An uncommonly warm association copy from Murray to another prominent attorney. BLOCKSON 3815. 84129.
Murray's first major literary work, a realistic and convincing representation of the Black experience, and an account of both her North Carolina family and childhood and her search for identity in her past. "Her book, in which history and literature intersect, is the product of a lively imagination and four years of devoted research in oral and documented history. She points out that it is the biography of her grandparents, the story of three generations of a family "involved in a crucial turning point in our nation's history." Much of the saga centers around the racial conflicts through which the family worked out its destiny, focusing on the courage, strength, and fearlessness in the face of danger that all members of the group exhibited. The women, both black and white, are noteworthy in their independence and recognition of moral duty, and the men are stalwart, and refuse to accept any status less than that of honorable men. Race and sex are explosive elements of suffering and shame that Murray exorcises through her honest confrontation of them, while education and tenacious survival are the foundations on which she builds a strong and positive indentity" (DLB Vol.41: Afro-American Poets Since 1955, p.249.). An uncommonly warm association copy from Murray to another prominent attorney. BLOCKSON 3815. 84129.