Blues For Mister Charlie.
BALDWIN, James.
Blues For Mister Charlie.
First Edition of James Baldwin's Blues For Mister Charlie; Inscribed by Him
New York: The Dial Press, 1964.
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Item Number: 112122
First edition of Baldwin’s powerful second play. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the dedication page, “For Rufus: At the beginning of a journey Jimmy.” Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Bernard Brussell-Smith. An exceptional example.
In a small Southern town, a white man murders a black man, then throws his body in the weeds. With this act of violence--which is loosely based on the notorious 1955 killing of Emmett Till--James Baldwin launches an unsparing and at times agonizing probe of the wounds of race. For where once a white storekeeper could have shot a "boy" like Richard Henry with impunity, times have changed. And centuries of brutality and fear, patronage and contempt, are about to erupt in a moment of truth as devastating as a shotgun blast. In his award-winning play, Baldwin turns a murder and its aftermath into an inquest in which even the most well-intentioned whites are implicated--and in which even a killer receives his share of compassion. "A play with fires of fury in its belly, tears of anguish in its eyes, a roar of protest in its throat" (The New York Times). It was the basis for the 1964 Broadway play directed by Burgess Meredith.
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