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The Weary Blues

Lot 83
28.09.2023 13:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 16 380
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1016414
Lot 83 | The Weary Blues
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
The Weary Blues

Langston Hughes

Langston HUGHES (1901-1967). The Weary Blues. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926.



George Gershwin's copy of Hughes's first book: presentation copy of the first edition, inscribed by the author in the month of publication: ‘For George Gershwin, creator of beauty in Blues, this book, Sincerely Langston Hughes, New York, January 31, 1926’.



The Weary Blues is ‘one of the high points of modernism and of what has come to be called the Harlem Renaissance—that flowering of African American literature and culture in the public’s consciousness […] The Weary Blues also pioneers the jazz aesthetic. While others had earlier described jazz, often at a remove […] Hughes knew that with jazz the form is the feeling. His poetry recognizes ecstasy not as a rarefied state but a new-born freedom jazz helped him capture on the page’ (Young).



This presentation copy provides an extraordinary link between two of the essential figures of American literature and music. The two men were likely introduced by Carl Van Vechten, patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an early champion of Gershwin, who also provided the introduction to the present volume. Unusually, we can say with some confidence exactly where and when the copy was inscribed: ‘On Sunday, January 31, about two hundred persons gathered at the Shipwreck Inn at 107, Claremont Avenue, between Wet 120th and 121st Street near Columbia University, to help Hughes launch his first book [...] The reading was a thorough success. Later, he signed books' (Rampersad). Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes: 1902-1941, I, too, sing America (1986); Kevin Young, ‘On Langston Hughes's The Weary Blues’, Poets.org.



Octavo. (A few faint marginal thumb-marks, lightly toned, short splits to endpaper in gutter.) Original cloth-backed boards, spine lettered in gilt (lacking the dust-jacket, minor wear at extremities); custom cloth chemise and quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: George Gershwin (American composer, 1898-1937; authorial inscription on half-title).

Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.09.2023 – 28.09.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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