"A MASTERPIECE IN ITS FIELD": NEGRO FOLK RHYMES, 1922 FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY THOMAS TALLEY

TALLEY, Thomas W. Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise. With a Study. New York: Macmillan, 1922. Octavo, original blue cloth. $1800.

First edition of this exceptional collection of rhymes used as the basis of African-American folk songs—"the first comprehensive and substantive collection of African-American secular song"—one of an unnumbered "Special Autograph Edition" signed by the editor and Fisk University professor Thomas Talley on a tipped-in leaf.

Thomas Washington Talley (1870-1952) was a chemistry professor at Fisk University as well as an inveterate collector of African American folk songs. "In 1922, Thomas Talley… published his Negro Folk Rhymes, the first comprehensive and substantive collection of African-American secular song. Hailed at the time of its publication as a masterpiece in its field, the collection consisted of 'Rhyme Dance Songs' and 'Negro Dance Rhymes.' Talley's purpose was to show that 'the Negro… has the rhyme-making habit and probably has always had it, and that the American Negro brought this habit with him to America'" (Floyd, Samuel A., The Power of Black Music, 49). Without extremely scarce dust jacket.

Text generally clean, rear board and spine bumped, minor discoloration to cloth. A very good copy, scarce and desirable signed.