A Rap on Race.

BALDWIN, James and Margaret Mead.

Item Number: 122376

Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1971.

First edition of Baldwin’s emotional response to American racism juxtaposed with Mead’s logical analysis of a social scientist. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “For Mary Katherine Rothenberger, Margaret Mead, June 14, 1971.” The recipient Katherine Rothenberger was a classmate of Mead’s at DePauw University and a lifelong friend. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Don Bender. Uncommon signed.

In 1970 James Baldwin and Margaret Mead met for an extraordinary seven-and-a-half-hour discussion about race and society. Mead brought her knowledge of racism as practiced in remote societies around the world. Baldwin brought his personal experience with the legacy of black American history. They talked with candor, passion, rage, and brilliance, and their discussion became this unique volume. Here is Baldwin's creativity and fire. Here is Mead's scholarship and reason. "Margaret Mead and James Baldwin are no ordinary people. . .their conversation. . .takes us along to places to which we could not otherwise go" (The Times Literary Supplement).