Angela Davis: An Autobiography FIRST EDITION WITH PROVENANCE
New York: Random House, 1974.
First Edition. Hardcover. This presentable first printing of Angela Y. Davis' landmark account of her life as one of the 1960s' most iconic Black activists comes from the library of the late influential Jewish lesbian feminist, theorist, activist, and scholar Dr. Bette S. Tallen (1950–2023). Angela Davis: An Autobiography was first published and edited by Toni Morrison in 1974, and this iconic autobiography tells the story of Davis' work at the frontlines of Black Liberation, feminist, queer, and prison abolitionist movements, her work with the Black Panther Party, the U.S. Communist Party, and the imprisoned Soledad Brothers, to her professorship at UCLA's Philosophy Department to becoming one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives. This is an admittedly worn, ex-library first edition, first printing, with notable provenance, honoring two influential lesbian activists, both Dr. Angela Y. Davis and Dr. Bette S. Tallen, showing one of the latter's inspirations in her decades of work in higher education and in community for LGBTQ+ liberation, women's rights, and intersectional feminism.
Stated first edition, first printing, with number line down to 2, per Random House's first editon points practice for the time period, with original price of $8.95 to front flap of dust jacket. 8 5/8" X 6". x, 400pp. Ex-Ramapo College of New Jersey Library, with label to dust jacket spine, stamp to top of text block, and unfilled original library card to rear free endpaper. Residue from removal of library dust jacket to pastedowns. Presents nicely in newly applied and easily removable protective archival sleeved jacket. Moderate wear to dust jacket, with library label to sunned spine, small neat tears to mid-spine and adjacent area of rear panel, and toning from library mylar to flaps, with residue to versos and pastedowns from removal. Bound in bright red cloth over boards, stamped in blind to upper board and lettered in black to spine. Mild edgewear and dust soiling to binding, slightly cocked, with foxing to edges of text block and gentle bumping to extremities. Rear hinge tender; binding remains quite firm and sound. Pages are clean and unmarked. Admittedly a first printing of this landmark work that has a history of its own, as evidenced by the detailed physical condition provided above, but one with a relevant and meaningful provenance, from the collection of the late Lesbian and Women's Studies scholar and activist Dr. Bette S. Tallen. Very good / good +. Item #17068
ISBN: 0394489780
Price: $95.00