B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S * * * * H O L I D A Y G I F T S * 2 LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF JUST ABOVE MY HEAD, ONE OF ONLY 500 COPIES SIGNED BY JAMES BALDWIN 2. BALDWIN, James. Just Above My Head. New York, 1979. Thick octavo, original maroon cloth, slipcase. $1250 Signed limited first edition of the last novel published in Baldwin’s lifetime, number 382 of only 500 copies signed by him. Baldwin’s epic novel of intertwined families, spanning three decades, “is the work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers, a man who, now that he is older and more mature, has truly come into his own. As the most celebrated black American novelist, Baldwin has given his readers a comprehensive and comprehending examination of race and sexuality and suggested some of the ways in which the politics of color can shape the transactions of love” (Washington Post). “It seems impossible for Baldwin to write with anything other than eloquence. His great and peculiar power is to recreate the maddening halfway house that the black man finds himself in late-20th-century America” (New Yorker). In an interview given just before publication of this work, his last novel published in his lifetime, Baldwin observed that he was able to “finally come full circle. From Go Tell It on the Mountain to Just Above My Head sums up something of my experience—it’s difficult to articulate —that sets me free to go someplace else” (New York Times). “First printing” on copyright page: “specially printed, bound and numbered.” Published same year as a trade edition, no priority established. A fine copy.
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