[HUGHES, Langston, his copy.] LeBUFFE, Francis P., Rev. The Hound of Heaven an Interpretation. New York: Macmillan Company, 1929.

8vo. Original cloth-backed boards, printed label on spine (spine ends sunned); publisher's dust jacket (spine panel toned with a few tiny chips). Provenance: Langston Hughes (signature).

Later edition, LANGSTON HUGHES'S COPY WITH HIS SIGNATURE. WITH A NOTE IN HUGHES'S HAND on the front flap: "From Scooby O'Sullivan." Presumably a gift from Noël Sullivan to his friend.

In 1941, Hughes experienced “stirrings of religion in him, quietly encouraged at Hollow Hills farms by the devout [Catholic] Noël Sullivan’s example; at least once in Chicago, at Easter, Hughes attended a Roman Catholic High Mass” (Rampersad, Life, Vol. II, p.43). LeBuffe’s work, perhaps one of Sullivan’s “quiet encouragements,” explores the depth of religious significance in a poem by Francis Thompson, which had been one of his favorite subjects of meditation.


Fine African Americana from the Collections of Noël Sullivan & William P. and Alice D. Mahoney