Product Type
Condition
Binding
Collectible Attributes
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Published by Hawthorne, NJ: Paul McDonough, 1981
Seller: Philip Smith, Bookseller, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
First Edition
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st edition. VG+. 8vo, 144pp, printed wrappers. Double issue of this interesting little magazine of experimental work. Includes a 15-page portfolio section of work by African-American photographer Prentice H. Polk writing by Susan Howe, Theodore Enslin, et al. Unmarked copy, light wear. Not Signed.
Published by Tuskegee, 1930
Seller: Auger Down Books, ABAA/ILAB, Marlboro, VT, U.S.A.
First Edition
Condition: Very Good. A pair of photographs from the prolific photographer Prentice H. Polk of a band led by Allen Moton, the son of Dr. Robert Moton, the president of Tuskegee University. Moton was, among other things, an acquaintance of Ralph Ellison's at Tuskegee, and may have been the inspiration for the car ride in Invisible Man, as Ellison recounted a particularly harrowing drive with Moton in his father's Cadillac with the pianist Hazel Harrison, in which Moton was trying to impress Hazelton with his knowledge of philosophy. According to an article in the Tuskegee Herald in 1956, Moton also played with Teddy Wilson at Tuskegee before Wilson joined Benny Goodman's band. The larger photograph has several of the band members identified in ink on the verso, as Allen Moton, Morris, Lollypop, Baker, Robert (likely Moton, also a musician), and Crosby. We find no record of the band besides the photograph, leaving the possibility open that "Moton's Sharps and Flats" was not the name under which they performed. Works cited: Gebhart, Caroline. Ghosts of Tuskegee. In: Devlin, Paul (editor). Ralph Ellison in Context. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pair of silver gelatin prints measuring 9 ½ x 7 â and 7 x 5 inches. Residue to versos from removal from scrapbook, tear and crease to larger image, very good contrast.