The Negro Around The World
- New York: The African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1925
New York: The African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1925. Very good. 7½” x 5”. Green cloth over boards, title gilt, paper jacket. Pp. 75. Book very good: gilt partially lacking; moderate dampstain to cloth; large penciled former owner notations to two pages and faint pencil marks to a few more; a bit toned with light scattered spotting and creasing. Dust jacket good, a rare survival: spine mostly perished and chipped at edges.
This is, per its rare dust jacket, “the dramatic and fascinating story of the Negro, told with graphic power and skillful brevity” by “a master of vivid and direct language,” Willard Price. Illustrated with fantastic pictorial maps by a noted cartographer, George Annand, the work “represents the results of extensive travel and a close study of one of the most important questions of the present day.”
Willard Price was a Caucasian, Canadian-born wanderer and prolific author of travel books, magazine articles and a series of adventure novels for young adults. He roved and wrote for the National Geographic Society and the American Museum of Natural History, and admitted that he spied for the United States in My Own Life of Adventure, one of two autobiographies. Along with the present work, which was published by the AME Church, Price penned titles such as Ancient Peoples at New Tasks (for the Missionary Education Movement, 1918), Incredible Africa (1962), A Real Revolution in China (1914) and several books on Japan.
In this work Price provided personal perspectives on Black populations he'd encountered on his travels, in a fanciful, bold adventurer's tone. The text noted African “Native medical knowledge,” education and superstitions, as well as the presence of American commerce, Christian and “Mohammedan missionary” work. One section concerned the “'discovery'” of the West Indies in 1502 by the “Black Columbus . . . not sailing in quest of wealth and fame,” but “unwillingly leading the way to the blackest experience of the black race.” Others covered Black life in Haiti, Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica, South and Central America. Price ultimately argued that the Black American, who perhaps could not “go personally to the jungle or the veldt,” should, “through racial organizations and particularly through the missionary societies of his own churches . . . extend his own swiftly won advantages to others who are less fortunate.”
The book is scarce in jacket, and we note that the one here advertises the George H. Doran Company, noted New York publishers, who also released the work the same year. Based on scarcity, we believe the present, AME edition to be the first; we surmise that Doran bought the remaining copies of the AME printing and then added its dust jacket in advance of its new release. The Doran Company was a major source for Allied literature during World War I and merged with Doubleday, Page and Co. in 1927, making Doubleday, Doran the largest publishing business in the nation. Doubleday & Company dropped the Doran name in 1946.
A wonderfully illustrated, compelling study of Black life and culture throughout the world, rare with jacket. OCLC shows 20 holdings of this edition.
This is, per its rare dust jacket, “the dramatic and fascinating story of the Negro, told with graphic power and skillful brevity” by “a master of vivid and direct language,” Willard Price. Illustrated with fantastic pictorial maps by a noted cartographer, George Annand, the work “represents the results of extensive travel and a close study of one of the most important questions of the present day.”
Willard Price was a Caucasian, Canadian-born wanderer and prolific author of travel books, magazine articles and a series of adventure novels for young adults. He roved and wrote for the National Geographic Society and the American Museum of Natural History, and admitted that he spied for the United States in My Own Life of Adventure, one of two autobiographies. Along with the present work, which was published by the AME Church, Price penned titles such as Ancient Peoples at New Tasks (for the Missionary Education Movement, 1918), Incredible Africa (1962), A Real Revolution in China (1914) and several books on Japan.
In this work Price provided personal perspectives on Black populations he'd encountered on his travels, in a fanciful, bold adventurer's tone. The text noted African “Native medical knowledge,” education and superstitions, as well as the presence of American commerce, Christian and “Mohammedan missionary” work. One section concerned the “'discovery'” of the West Indies in 1502 by the “Black Columbus . . . not sailing in quest of wealth and fame,” but “unwillingly leading the way to the blackest experience of the black race.” Others covered Black life in Haiti, Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica, South and Central America. Price ultimately argued that the Black American, who perhaps could not “go personally to the jungle or the veldt,” should, “through racial organizations and particularly through the missionary societies of his own churches . . . extend his own swiftly won advantages to others who are less fortunate.”
The book is scarce in jacket, and we note that the one here advertises the George H. Doran Company, noted New York publishers, who also released the work the same year. Based on scarcity, we believe the present, AME edition to be the first; we surmise that Doran bought the remaining copies of the AME printing and then added its dust jacket in advance of its new release. The Doran Company was a major source for Allied literature during World War I and merged with Doubleday, Page and Co. in 1927, making Doubleday, Doran the largest publishing business in the nation. Doubleday & Company dropped the Doran name in 1946.
A wonderfully illustrated, compelling study of Black life and culture throughout the world, rare with jacket. OCLC shows 20 holdings of this edition.
Details
Title
The Negro Around The World
Author
Price, Willard
Condition
Very Good
Publisher
The African Methodist Episcopal Church: New York
Date
1925