THE SECRET RIVER

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955. Near fine in very good plus dust jacket.. Scarce first printing of this Newbery Honor-winning work by the author of THE YEARLING, a magical realism tale of a young Black girl's efforts to feed her community during the Great Depression. THE SECRET RIVER turned up among Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's papers after her death, a fully finished manuscript "quite different in style from her other work" (Introduction). Printed on brown paper with richly textured black-and-white illustrations by Leonard Weisgard, the physical form of this book creates additional atmosphere for Rawlings's story of a Florida forest. Issued at a period when US publishers rarely showcased Black heroes in children's books, it set the stage for other award-winning books like THE SNOWY DAY - though a Black author would not win the Newbery Honor until Virginia Hamilton in 1974, with M.C. HIGGINS, THE GREAT. 8'' x 6''. Original brown pictorial cloth binding. Original price-clipped color pictorial dust jacket. Illustrated in black and white. Unpaginated, printed on brown paper. Jacket with light edgewear, a bit of loss to lower spine; one small tape reinforcement to verso. Binding with mild bumping to spine ends. Tight and clean.