"The Unpretending Narrative of the Life of a Remarkable and Meritorious Woman"
Narrative of Sojourner Truth. A Northern Slave, Emancipated from Bodily Servitude by the State of New York, in 1828. With a Portrait.
New York: Published for the Author, 1853.
. Narrative of Sojourner Truth. A Northern Slave, Emancipated from Bodily Servitude by the State of New York, in 1828. With a Portrait. New York: Published for the Author, 1853.
Full Description:
TRUTH, Sojourner. GILBERT, Olive, [editor]. Narrative of Sojourner Truth. A Northern Slave, Emancipated from Bodily Servitude by the State of New York, in 1828. With a Portrait. New York: Published for the Author, 1853.
Second edition. Octavo (7 3/8 x 4 1/2 inches; 185 x 113 mm). [i-xii], [13]-144 pp. With woodcut frontispiece portrait. We could only find one other copy of this edition at auction in the past 30 years.
Bound in quarter modern calf over marbled boards. Spine stamped in blind. Red morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Newer endpapers. With original front blank. A repaired corner to front blank. Some repaired closed tears to frontispiece leaf, but none touching the portrait. Some minor foxing and toning, mainly to preliminary and final leaves. Overall a very good copy.
"The unpretending narrative of the life of a remarkable and meritorious woman" (from the Preface).
"At the time of publication, Sojourner Truth was already a prominent abolitionist preacher, she had delivered her first such speech in 1844 shortly after re-christening herself as Sojourner Truth. Though herself illiterate, she was inspired by the success of Frederick Douglass's Narrative to publish her own. She narrated her story to Olive Gilbert, a neighbor in the utopian and abolitionist Northampton Association. The narrative is mostly in the third person, but it is clear that Sojourner Truth herself and others at the time considered her and her alone as the author and Gilbert's role as more the amanuensis and editor. Sojourner Truth was also hew own chief distributor and marketer and convinced the printer, J.B. Yerrinton, to take the job on credit on her behalf." (Chrsities)
Sojourner Truth (Born Isabella Baumfree, ca. 1797-1883) was a remarkable woman–born into slavery, she became one of the great abolitionist orators of the pre-Civil War period, and a friend of Frederick Douglass, and guest of Abraham Lincoln at the White House. She was also a strong advocate of women's rights at a time when that sentiment was of little concern to most people. Gilbert's biography was a pioneering effort in the virtually ignored field of black women's history.
Appointed by Abraham Lincoln as counsellor to the freedmen of Washington, Sojourner Truth continued to promote black civil rights until her retirement in 1875.
BAL 19381. Blockson 29 (First Edition). Howes G-163.
HBS 69623.
$12,000.
Price: $12,000.00
Item #69623