A Ballad of August Bondi [INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR TO EDITH SEGAL*]

New York: Published by the author, 1955. First edition. Paperback. g. Octavo. Unpaginated. [16]pp. Original printed wrappers. Title page inscribed and signed by the author to Edith Segal*. Aaron Kramer was a versatile American poet passionately engaged with everything from the Holocaust and the Spanish Civil War to his love for New York City and his wife. His "Ballad of August Bondi" was commissioned by the Jewish Young Folksingers as their contribution to the nationwide festivities honoring the tercentenary of Jewish life in North America. This ballad was set to music by Serge Hovey. Wrappers sunned along edges. Upper corners bumped, thus slightly affecting pages throughout. Wrappers and interior in overall good condition. * Edith Segal (1902-1997) was a Jewish-American choreographer, dancer, poet and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City to immigrant parents, Segal chose to pursue a professional career in dance against the wishes of her mother who called her a "bummarke" (Yiddish for bum). She soon became a dance student of the highly regarded Blanche Talmud, and later earned a scholarship with ballet dancer Michael Mordkin. An early supporter of the Soviet Union, in 1929 she formed a dance company known as the Red Dancers. Some of her first works were in tribute to Lenin and were performed at a memorial she organized for him. The next year, along with other American artists, she visited the Soviet Union and upon returning declared with the others that "Art is a weapon". During this period she also studied with Martha Graham. In 1930 she created her best-known work, Black and White, which was one of the first interracial dance performances in the United States. Black And White has been noted as the signature work in American leftist dance. Other Segal choreographed works on race relations included Scottsboro, Third Degree and Southern Holiday. In addition to civil rights themes, Segal created many dances around Jewish cultural themes as well as worker's rights, always sympathetic to communist causes. During the Red Scare in the 1950s she was called to testify before the New York state legislature investigating committee regarding her communist ties. (Inventory #: 37877)