Roots. by HALEY, Alex - 1976

New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc.,, 1976. First edition, first printing, an excellent presentation copy from the author, inscribed in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, "November 12, 1976. Irving and Jean Stone, my friends, my colleagues - the family of Kunta Kinte wishes the very warm best to you and your family - Sincerely, Alex Haley P.O. Bo 3338 Beverly Hills CA 90212". Irving Stone (1903-1986) was a highly successful author, best known for his fictionalised biographies of Van Gogh (Lust for Life, 1934) and Michelangelo (The Agony and the Ecstasy, 1961). His wife, Jean Factor, played a key role in the editing of Lust for Life, and remained "his permanent editor" (American National Biography). Stone and Haley shared the same publisher, Doubleday. Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976) appeared in the bicentennial year "to great fanfare. A historical novel that invited acceptance as a work of history, it told the story of the family's origins in West Africa, its experience in slavery, and its subsequent history. A bestselling book that won a Pulitzer Prize, Roots had even greater impact when it was made into a gripping television miniseries. Broadcast by ABC in January and February 1977, it was seen, in whole or in part, by 130 million people. It stimulated interest and pride in the African-American experience" (ANB). Large octavo. Original black cloth-backed tan boards, titles to spine in gilt on a tan faux label, fore-edge untrimmed. With dust jacket. Slight sunning to top edge, a hint of rubbing to spine ends, the binding otherwise sharp, internally crisp. A near-fine copy in the very good jacket, verso a little toned, minor nicks to corners, not price-clipped.