Sale 2471 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 29, 2018

244 c   (LITERATURE.) Death notice of Phillis Wheatly in the Massachusetts Centinel. 4 pages, 10 1 / 4 x 8 inches, on one folding sheet; disbound, moderate toning, cropped on top edge. Boston, 8 December 1784 [800/1,200] This notice was published three days after the poet’s death: “Last Lord’s day died, Phillis Peters, formerly Phillis Wheatly, known to the world by her widely celebrated miscellaneous Poems.” They made no mention of her race or prior condition of servitude, only the importance of her literary output. 245 c   (LITERATURE.) Brown, Sterling A. Southern Road. Woodcut illustrations by E. Simms Campbell. xv, 135 pages. 8vo, publisher’s 1 / 4 russet cloth over boards, extremities rubbed with light exposure; endpaper gutters toned. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, [1932] [300/400] first edition , inscribed by the author on the front endpaper “in fellowship” to Donald Young. Additional inscription below to lyricist Yip Harburg of “Over the Rainbow” fame: “One of my eleven fans, with best wishes, Sterling A. Brown (S.A. Greer) (Senator Billboard Rawkins) 1955.” Brown’s inscription incorporates the name of his famous poetic character Slim Greer, who relied on his wit to disarm his white persecutors, as well as one of Harburg’s famous creations, the bigoted senator from the musical Finian’s Rainbow. LITERATURE LOTS 244 - 254 244