Dialecte

1920 · 9916 — Memphis TN: Latsch & Arnold 1920. First edition. 8.5x8" 30ff. Illustrated with several full page and vignette drawings presumably by the author. Printed on brown stock with decorative borders throughout. Bound in original brown and blue paper covered boards. Signed and inscribed by the author Willa Johnson on the ffep. Paper spine perished boards rubbed and soiled. Still a very good sound copy. <br /> <br /> Privately printed collection of vernacular and sentimental verse issued by the local Memphis job printer Latsch & Arnold. The poems use Black Southern dialect and regional speech characteristic of African American vernacular writing of the time while other pieces are sentimental and typical of local community-distributed poetry. We find no concrete answers as to the author and recipient but that is understandable for a grassroots publication of this nature. An intriguing and scarce title held only in the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays at Brown University and the University of Kentucky. Latsch & Arnold unknown