Offered for sale by Adam Langlands of 'Shadowrock Rare Books' - for more information please contact him via email at adamlanglands@gmail.com

Edwin DuBose HEYWARD (1885-1940). Brass Ankle a play in three acts. New York: Farrar & Rinehart Inc., 1931. Octavo (9 x 5 ¾ in; 228 x 146mm). Pp. [i-x; 1-2-]3-133[-134; i-ii]. Original cloth-backed paper-covered boards, gilt and black label to spine (spine somewhat discolored [see images]). Rare first limited edition, number 9 of 100 copies on English handmade paper signed by the Author. No other copies for sale, last appearance at auction seems to have been in 1971. Charleston-born Heyward’s best known work ‘Porgy’ prompted Langston Hughes to describe the author as ‘one who saw ‘with his white eyes, wonderful, poetic qualities in the inhabitants of Catfish Row that makes them come alive’ (wikipedia). ‘Heyward wrote the play Brass Ankle, produced in 1931 in New York. The title refers to a Southern term for a person of mixed-race ancestry and was long used in a pejorative way. The play addressed issues of mixed-race, featuring a couple in a small southern town who have grown up believing they were white and learning about some African-American ancestry.’ (wikipedia).