Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly - photo 1
Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly - photo 2
Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly - photo 3

Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly

Lot 139
28.09.2023 13:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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£ 3 024
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1016515
Lot 139 | Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly
Estimate value
£ 2 000 – 3 000
Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly

[Lead Belly] John A. Lomax and Alan Lomaz

[LEAD BELLY] LOMAX, John A. and Alan LOMAX. Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly. New York: Macmillan, 1936.



First edition, boldly signed in black ink on the front free endpaper by subject and co-author ‘Huddie Ledbetter’, better known as Lead Belly.



Compiled by renowned folklorist John Lomax and his son Alan, this classic volume on the music and legend of seminal folk singer Lead Belly features 49 songs with musical notations, including Frankie and Albert, Midnight Special, C.C Rider and Shreveport Jail, each contextualised by Lead Belly. Lead Belly’s ‘powerful voice, extensive repertory, fancy stepping and virtuosity on guitar, mandolin, piano, accordion and harmonica’ brought him an early fame that was cut short by his imprisonment for murder in Texas and in Louisiana’s Angola Penitentiary. After Lomax assisted him in gaining his parole, Lead Belly accompanied Lomax to New York, where he was recorded extensively for the Library of Congress. In New York, Ledbetter found a welcome audience among jazz supporters, who viewed him as the last of the blues singers. Christgau, The Real Folk Singer for The New York Times, 17 January 1993.



Quarto. With frontispiece. Original yellow cloth, without dust-jacket, rarely found (extremities lightly rubbed, spine and upper edge sunned and browned, some bruising to head of spine). Newspaper clipping on the death of Lead Belly, with pencilled date ‘12/7/49’ tipped to front pastedown (acid burn to front endpapers). Housed in a modern custom quarter black morocco cloth solander box.

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