First edition of Baldwin’s first book. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by James Baldwin on the front free endpaper to his mother, “Mama from Rizzy from Jimmy – August 21st!” The recipient, Baldwin’s mother Emma Berdis Jones, left Baldwin’s biological father before moving to Harlem where Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924. When James was 3 years old, his mother married a Baptist preacher David Baldwin with whom she had eight children between 1927 and 1943. The family was poor, and Baldwin’s stepfather, to whom he referred in essays as his father, treated him more harshly than his other children. His intelligence, combined with the persecution he endured in his stepfather’s home, drove Baldwin to spend much of his time alone in libraries where he discovered his passion for writing at an early age. At the age of 13, he wrote his first article, titled “Harlem—Then and Now”, which was published in his school’s magazine, The Douglass Pilot. Baldwin and his mother remained close throughout his lifetime, she was an honorary guest at his 60th birthday celebration at UMass Amherst in August 1984. Near fine in a very good price-clipped dust jacket which has been restored and with the spine and front panel supplied in facsimile. Jacket drawing by John O’Hara Cosgrave. An exceptional association.
