"…TILL THINGS ARE BRIGHTER, I'M THE MAN IN BLACK": JOHNNY CASH'S FIRST AUTOBIOGRAPHY, PRESENTED BY HIM TO FELLOW MUSICIAN AND BANDLEADER LES BROWN

CASH, Johnny. Man in Black. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, (1975). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $2800.

First edition of Cash's noted first autobiography, presentation/association copy inscribed by him on the front free endpaper to fellow musician Les Brown, leader of Les Brown & His Band of Renown: "To Les Brown, the Best to you, Johnny Cash."

Cash was "the vocal bedrock of American country music for more than four decades… Known as the Man in Black, both for his voice, which projected the fateful gravity of a country patriarch, and for his signature look, which suggested a cowboy undertaker, Cash was one of the few performers who outlasted trends to become a mythical figure rediscovered by each new generation… For all the grimness of his Man in Black persona, Cash insisted that he was not a morbid person. 'I am not obsessed with death—I'm obsessed with living… The battle against the dark one and the clinging to the right one is what my life is about'" (New York Times). In this volume, Cash presents his life as a "spiritual odyssey." A second autobiography, Cash, followed in 1997. With 24 pages of photographic illustrations. New Grove 3:856. Recipient Lester Raymond Brown (1912-2001) was an American jazz musician who led the big band Les Brown and His Band of Renown for over six decades from 1938 to 2000. Brown and his band were also the house band for The Steve Allen Show (1959-61) and the Dean Martin Show (1965-72).

Book near-fine, with light foxing to text block edges; dust jacket with small pen mark to front panel, mild creasing to extremities, extremely good. An excellent inscribed association copy.