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

87 c   (ART.) Pinkney, Jerry; artist. Original study for the cover of the award-winning children’s book,The Old African. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 11 3 / 4 x 9 3 / 4 inches sight size, signed in lower right image; not examined out of frame. Np, [2005] [4,000/6,000] The Old African by Julius Lester won several awards for children’s and young adult literature upon its pub- lication in 2005. It is based in part on the story of an actual revolt aboard a slave ship in 1803, in which the captives managed to drown the ship’s crew but ran aground at Igbo Landing, Georgia. Rather than submit to slavery, they walked into the ocean toward Africa. The Old African was illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, who has won five Coretta Scott King Awards for his illustration work, and remains the only African-American winner of the Caldecott Medal for children’s books. The book’s cover is a very similar composition to this piece, but shows the man with both arms slightly extended at each side. Provenance: given to Basil O. Phillips (1932-2007), the longtime photo editor for Ebony Magazine, and thence to the consignor.