Black Boy Jeunesse Noire Inscribed to Maurice Merleau-Ponty
194757013Paris: Gallimard 1947. First French Edition. First Impression a review copy with S.P. printed at upper left corner of rear wrapper. Octavo 20.75cm; original printed wrappers and publisher's glassine overlay; 1314-2644pp. Inscribed by Wright on the half-title page to French philosopher and intellectual Maurice Merleau-Ponty above a brief inscription by translator Marcel Duhamel. Slight forward lean some light wear and handling with a tiny chip to base of spine and the usual tanning to text edges with some tiny nicks and tears to same; Very Good in a Very Good glassine. Wright's fourth book a moving and shocking autobiography of race relations growing up in the South and his eventual move to Chicago at age 19 where he established his writing career and became involved with the Communist Party. He moved to Paris in 1946 and became a French citizen the following year. While there he befriended fellow expatriate writers James Baldwin and Chester Himes and was drawn to existentialism after becoming involved with its primary exponents: Jean-Paul Sartre Simone de Beauvoir Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Albert Camus. Their influence on his writing was especially evident in his 1953 novel The Outsider which "speaks from an existential framework about the oppression of black people and the resulting violence and crime - something no black writer had tried to do before" Karny Roger. "Existentialism from an African-American Perspective." Philsophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas 2021. While Wright signed and inscribed books liberally during his years in France association copies of real significance are uncommon. BLOCKSON 4801. Gallimard unknown
Lorne Bair Rare Books · États-Unis1 800,00 $US≈ 1 522,98 €
