207 300
368
●
(LITERATURE AND POETRY.) CALGANO, FRANCISCO.
Poetas de
Color.
54 pages. 8vo, rebound in cloth-backed leather covered boards; preliminaries,
including the title-page remargined.
Havana, 1878
[250/350]
A SCARCE EARLY WORK ON SEVERAL IMPORTANT AFRO
-
CUBAN POETS
.
Placido, Juan Francisco
Manzano, Agustin Baldomero Rodriguez, and Antonio Medina.
369
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FORDHAM, MARY WESTON.
Magnolia Leaves . . . with Introductory by
Booker T. Washington.
Frontispiece photograph of the author’s home. 104 pages. Small
8vo, original pictorial tan covers, spine in gilt, covers blocked in green, all edges tinted red;
some bleed from the red to the rear inner board edge, tiny smudge on front cover, other-
wise a fine copy of an attractive and well-made book.
Charleston, S.C.: Evens and Cogswell, 1897
[2,500/3,500]
RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE POET
’
S ONLY PUBLISHED BOOK
.
Mary Weston, later Fordham
(1844-1905), poet and educator, was born to free parents in Charleston, S.C. Her family was well
off and she received a thorough education from tutors. During the Civil War, she ran a semi-clandes-
tine school for black children; something for which she was nearly arrested at least twice. She continued
teaching well after the war for the American Missionary Association. She married James H. Fordham
in 1868, a store clerk and later policeman, with whom she had four children. This slender volume
contains 66 poems, most of which eulogize members of the families of her circle. One of her pieces, an
epic poem titled Uranne, shows a familiarity and proficiency with the classics as well as the romantic
poets like Byron, Keats et al. For more see African American National Biography, Volume 3, pages
320-321; Notable Black Women, Book II. Porter, page 37; not seen by French Fabre and Singh;
Blockson Collection, 5803
369