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WITH TWO ORIGINAL PHOTOS OF THE AUTHOR
439
●
(WWI.) JORDAN, WALKER H.
With “Old Eph” In The Army (Not a
History): A Simple Treatise on the Human Side of The Colored Soldier.
Three
full page inserted plates. 51 pages, plus Epilogue. Small 4to, original printed wrappers with
yapped edges; some light wear; one corner creased where folded over.
WITH
two pho-
tographs of Jordan, one of them signed by the author.
Baltimore, circa 1919
[1,500/2,500]
AN EXCEPTIONAL NARRATIVE WITH TWO ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE AUTHOR
.
One, is
a ”real photo postcard” posed by African American photographer Arthur Macbeth in his studio. It is
signed by the author, and shows him as a young recruit. The other, a 5 x 7 silver print (matted and
framed) is by Addison Scurlock of Washington D.C. and shows Jordan posed with a loving cup given
him by Headquarters Company 351st Field Artillery. Jordan now bears sergeant’s stripes. His account
is much more than the experience of a black soldier in the “Great War,” it is an extraordinarily well-
written story of forbearance in the face of prejudice. Jordan is recounts how the colored soldier was
treated before, during and after the war, with a scathing, but surprisingly not bitter criticism of the
High Command’s handling of colored officers at the end of the war, and a plea for racial understanding
in the face of a common enemy. “Eph” was a term coined in France by a white officer and “couched in
scorn and sarcasm for everything colored.” The term was transformed by the “valorous deeds” of the
colored soldier and transformed itself into a friendly and positive thing.
RARE
,
ONLY FOUR COPIES
ARE LOCATED
:
BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY
,
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
,
WISCONSIN HISTORICAL
,
AND ST
.
LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY
.