Black Artist's First Book, Inscribed
Peaches
Publication: New York: Lathrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1974. First Edition.
Notes: A scarce inscribed children's book by a lifelong artist who had her first solo show in 2001, at age 74.
McCannon is best-known for her printmaking and fiber work, both of which have influenced the illustrations in this, her first* book, a middle-school novel about a young Black girl growing up in Harlem in the early 1970s. The book is illustrated with several full-page and one double-page drawing by the author-artist; the chapter openings have abstract drawings as headpieces.
In a profile in the New York Times (The World Catches Up With Dindga McCannon) in 2021, McCannon said of her career, “I just kept making what was right for me,...Eventually, the world catches up with you.” Her work is now in the Whitney and other museums.
* McCannon illustrated several children's books before writing this book. She published one other YA novel.
126 pages.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A near fine copy in a very good, price-clipped and somewhat tanned dust jacket. This copy is inscribed by the author-artist on the dedication page, "to Earlene Reavies, Peace & love & Blackness. Dindga McCannon. NCA Conference, April 3 1980." On the verso (back) of the front free endpaper, McCannon wrote her name and address in Harlem and listed the titles of the books she had illustrated. Her second book is noted as "coming."
Reavies (1934–2021) graduated with a Master's degree from Howard University and worked at the university hospital for 36 years.
Item No: #364367
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