BLACK MAGIC.
by Morand, Paul (1888-1976)
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very good in decorative paper covered boards with a black cloth spine, and gold paper label on spine. Some rubbing and wear to e/decorative paper covered boards with a black cloth spine, and gold paper label on spine. Some rubbing and wear to edges of board
- Seller
-
Ione, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York:: The Viking Press,, 1929.. Hardcover first edition -. Very good in decorative paper covered boards with a black cloth spine, and gold paper label on spine. Some rubbing and wear to edges of boards, but overall a tight and clean copy, no dust jacket. . First US printing. A member of the French diplomatic service, Morand become friends with Carl Van Vechten in New York in 1925-27 and in 1927-28 he traveled though the Southern U.S. and the Caribbean, including Martinique, Trinidad, Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba. In 1928 Morand went to French colonial possessions in Africa, including Dakar (Senegal), French Guinea, French Sudan and Timbuktu, among other places -or, as he ended his preface to this book "30,000 miles. 28 Negro countries." Magie Noire or Black Magic is a collection of stories or vignettes, supposedly based on these travels. A few involve voodoo, and several are stories of 'passing' or attempting to pass as white, but all are about black people, often depicted in grotesque or stereotypical ways, and despite being illustrated by the noted Harlem Renaissance artist, Aaron Douglas, and the comment by the translator expressing gratitude to noted civil rights activist and author Walter White for his assistance, the underlying racism of this book is indisputable. A contemporary review in the NY Times noted that Morand "takes the black races as material for esthetic effects, for a smooth high-geared prose that is modern in its surface aspects and not particularly searching" while a more recent critic commented even when it "recounts various injustices which African-Americans have suffered at the hands of white Americans - including lynchings and sundown towns - the focus of the story is not on the real injustices against Black people, but on the negative portrayal of Black people in striving for economic success and political equality." Translated from the French by Hamish Miles. Striking full page illustrations by Douglas at the beginning of each story make this book worthwhile. 218 pp.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Bookfever.com, IOBA (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 87946
- Title
- BLACK MAGIC.
- Author
- Morand, Paul (1888-1976)
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover first edition -
- Book Condition
- Used - Very good in decorative paper covered boards with a black cloth spine, and gold paper label on spine. Some rubbing and wear to e
- Jacket Condition
- decorative paper covered boards with a black cloth spine, and gold paper label on spine. Some rubbing and wear to edges of board
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- The Viking Press,
- Place of Publication
- New York:
- Date Published
- 1929.
- Keywords
- aaron douglas, passing, voodoo, haiti, africa,
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literature in translation;
Terms of Sale
Bookfever.com, IOBA
Free media mail shipping in US included; priority is $7.50 and international at cost. Books are packed carefully, shipped promptly with delivery confirmation and insurance at our expense. It is important for our customers to be totally satisfied with their purchase and guarantee all of our books to be as described. Want lists welcomed.
About the Seller
Bookfever.com, IOBA
Biblio member since 2003
Ione, California
About Bookfever.com, IOBA
Celebrating our 30th year in business. We started selling books in the CompuServe Book Collecting forum in 1993, a few years before there was any commercial Internet. In 1998 we relocated our main business from Sacramento to the Sierra foothills of Amador County.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...