"MUCH OF THIS BOOK, YOU KNOW, WAS WRITTEN AT HOLLOW HILLS": FIRST EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE IN HARLEM, INSCRIBED AT LENGTH BY LANGSTON HUGHES TO HIS CLOSE FRIEND AND PATRON NOËL SULLIVAN

HUGHES, Langston. Shakespeare in Harlem. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942. Octavo, original half orange and black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $7500.

First edition of Hughes' major book of poetry—"a work of genuine talent and artistry"—inscribed at length by him in the year of publication, "Dear Noël—Much of this book, you know, was written at Hollow Hills. But the poems are of much less pleasant places. Happiness to you always! Langston. New York, February 6, 1942."

"Shakespeare in Harlem was emphatically, unashamedly about being Black… resounding in its success as a representation of the lives and thoughts of the mass of Black Americans… In building this book of poems on the blues, Langston had returned to the inspiration for his greatest creative period." While Hughes was distressed over the design of the dust jacket, Van Vechten assured him: "The whole book sings with that kind of wistful loneliness you have made peculiarly your own" (Rampersad, Life V.I:390). On publication the Christian Science Monitor praised it as "'a work of genuine talent and skillful artistry." The Saturday Review of Literature noted: "rarely in our poetry do we find this subtle blending of tragedy and comedy. It is an exquisite art and a difficult one," and the Herald-Tribune reviewer especially "spoke of 'so sure a touch and an insight so genuine' in Hughes' brilliant gliding between exhilaration and despair" (Rampersad, Life V.II: 40-42). "First Edition" stated on copyright page. With frontispiece and 12 full-page illustrations after drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer. Bruccoli & Clark, 160. Blockson 6355. The recipient of this copy was beloved California art patron Noël Sullivan, who was "as close a friend as any relative Hughes ever had… for a quarter of a century Sullivan was the poet's most trusted confidant" (Berry, Langston Hughes, 150). Hughes dedicated his first collection of short stories, Ways of White Folks (1934) to Sullivan, who regularly offered Hughes refuge at his home in San Francisco and his farm in Carmel—the "Hollow Hills" of the inscription—where Sullivan often welcomed 40 or more dinner guests, including artists, writers, actors and musicians such as Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson and Duke Ellington. Sullivan eventually built Hughes his own cottage at the farm, providing an ever-ready retreat for the writer. At Sullivan's death in 1956, Hughes knew he had lost both "a haven" and steadfast benefactor (Rampersad, Life V.II:257).

Book fine, dust jacket with a few short closed tears, toning to spine. An excellent presentation copy to a person very important to Hughes.