Middleton A. Harris, Editor
Forward by Toni Morrison
In 1974, Middleton A. Harris and Toni Morrison led a team of gifted, passionate collectors in compiling nearly 500 images into one sensational narrative of the Black experience in America: The Black Book which remains a breathtaking testament to the legendary wisdom, strength, and perseverance of Black men and women intent on freedom.Prominent collectors Morris Levitt, Roger Furman, and Ernest Smith, as well as poet, Middleton Harris and novelist, Toni Morrison (then a Random House editor, now a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning Nobel laureate) spent months studying, laughing at, and crying over these materials. They include transcripts of fugitive slaves’ trials; proclamations by Frederick Douglass and other celebrated abolitionists; chilling images of cross burnings and lynchings; 19th Century sheet music; photos of regally clad war heroes; runaway slave posters; an 1856 article titled A Visit to the Slave Mother Who Killed Her Child (which was the basis for Toni Morrison’s incredible novel Beloved); patents registered by Black inventors throughout the early 20th Century; and vibrant posters from “Black Hollywood” films from the 1930s and 1940s.
This 35th Anniversary edition is beautifully and faithfully presented, and featuring a new Foreword and original poem by Toni Morrison. The Black Book remains a timeless landmark work and is a must for every library that prides itself on truth.
Cloth 35.00
