first edition
[1972] · [Amherst]
by REED, Ishmael
[Amherst]: University of Massachusetts Press, [1972]. First Edition. Octavo (22cm). Cloth boards; dustjacket; 82pp. Light shelf wear to boards and jacket extremities, shallow crease to rear flap, else Very Good to Near Fine. Inscribed and signed by the author on half title: "For Cristoph / 'Open my face' / Ishmael Reed." First full-length poetry collection (following three novels) by the founder of the Umbra Workshop, a significant influence on the Black Arts Movement. Includes Reed's major long poem "Catechism of d neoamerican hoodoo church," which was first published as a chapbook by the British publisher Paul Breman. (Inventory #: 37643)