The Original 1619 Project, Inscribed
Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America, 1619–1962
Publication: Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co., 1962. First Edition.
Notes: An inscribed first edition of this hugely successful popular history of African Americans, written by the history editor of Ebony magazine.
According to Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr. by James West, Before the Mayflower went on to sell more than one million copies and it remained in print for more than 30 years. The book, written for a popular audience and adapted from Bennett's history essays in Ebony, did more than any other book of its era to make that case that Black history was American history.
xii, 404 pages.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing, with no indication of later printings on the copyright page). A near fine copy in a very good dust jacket that has some fading to the red lettering on the spine and some shelfwear to the black ink of the main jacket. Despite what was probably a large print run from Ebony (the book was published by the magazine's parent company), first printings are quite uncommon; inscribed copies are even more so. This copy is inscribed, "To Elise and John Hope, with respect and best wishes, Lerone Bennet Jr."
The Hopes were most likely John Hope II and Elise Hope. John Hope was the son of the first Black president of Morehouse College; like his father he was an academic. He joined the Kennedy Administration as an executive of the Equal Employment Opportunity committee and later served in the federal Office of Civil Rights.
Item No: #364359
Price: $1,000