“A SYMBOL OF BLACK REBELLION”: FIRST EDITION OF ELDRIDGE CLEAVER’S SOUL ON ICE, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY HIM

CLEAVER, Eldridge. Soul on Ice. New York: Ramparts / McGraw-Hill, (1968). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $11,000.

First edition of Cleaver’s “searing prison memoir” (New York Times), written by him from California’s Folsom State Prison, inscribed on the half title "To Gareth L. Pawlowski, who appreciated this book in a way that makes me glad that it was written. All Power to the People! Eldridge. Alger Jan. 10, 1971."

Eldridge Cleaver's "searing prison memoir Soul on Ice and leadership in the Black Panther Party made him a symbol of black rebellion…When Soul on Ice was published in 1968, it had a tremendous impact on an intellectual community radicalized by the civil rights movement, urban riots, the war in Vietnam and campus rebellions… The New York Times named it one of its 10 best books of the year… First printed in Ramparts, the quintessential radical magazine of the 60s, Cleaver's prison essays are angry, sometimes bitingly funny, often obsessed with sexuality. And they trace the development of his political thought through his prison readings of the works of Thomas Paine, Marx, Lenin, James Baldwin and, above all, Malcolm X" (New York Times). With "First Edition" on copyright page. Introduction by Maxwell Geismar. Cleaver inscribed this copy in 1971 to Gareth Pawlowski, an author best known for How They Became the Beatles: A Definitive History of the Early Years 1960-1964. Cleaver lived in exile from 1968 until 1975; at the time of this inscription, he was living in Algeria, cultivating contacts with revolutionaries and anti-colonialists from across Africa and the world.

Book with slight rubbing to corners and spine ends, dust jacket with short closed tear along bottom fold of front flap, mild wear to spine ends, a few marks to rear panel. A near-fine inscribed copy.