Genuine Afro Dream Book

Youngstown: Mutuel Publishing Company, 1939. Paperback. Very good. Paperback. 63pp. wraps slightly darkened with some light foxing throughout, else very good. 'Afro covers everything in dreams." A characteristic piece of African-American popular culture, a dream book was intended for platters of the policy or numbers game popular in cities across the US from Chicago to New York. Three digit numbers were keyed to dreams and intended to be played for the daily game. Some contained additional tables of luck numbers for specific jackets (Eddie Arcano, 137), for Harlem occurrences ("To hear a man play the dozen, 912"), and past performance tables for numbers dating from 1931 to 1940.

Ephemeral and cheaply printed, the books were sold at newsstands, candy stores, occult trinket shops and most anywhere else people would gather to buy daily sundries such as cigarettes and snacks.