Cook, Roy J./[Gilbert, Don].

[Extra-Illustrated Copy of] One Hundred and One Famous Poems . . .

[Publication data obscured; creation data unknown; extra contents circa 1935-1985]. 8¼” x 4½”. Blue cloth over boards, spine and title gilt. Pp. 186 plus hundreds of clippings adhered inside boards, to endpapers, margins, edges and laid in. Very good minus: hinges cracked and prelims loose; light dampstains and waviness; faint to moderate offsetting and adhesive residue.

This is a copy of a well-known poetry anthology, immensely extra-illustrated by an African American editor and publisher, Don Gilbert.

Don Gilbert graduated from Clark College in Atlanta and studied for a time at Brooklyn Law School. A 1945 article in The Black Dispatch newspaper reported that he was “nationally known as a musician and entertainer” and had taken “a special leave from his wartime duties as a shipyard worker to follow his own unique way of contributing to the nation's war activities.” He founded and edited a “magazine of inspiration” called Applause which covered “Negro men and women in the armed services” (and later “Negro churches”) in Dallas, Memphis and Oklahoma City. He also compiled and published the noted Dallas, Texas Negro City Directory 1947-1948. Gilbert died in Memphis in 2003 at the age of 84.

This book, already rich with poems by Longfellow, Emerson, Shelly and Shakespeare, just to name a few, was painstakingly adorned with what must be several hundred clipped poems and quotations, some by those of fame and many not. There are adages on God and “Greatness,” love and kindness, “What it Takes to Make a Home” and hints for happiness. While famous white men are strongly represented, Gilbert also added content concerning the Black experience, including two poems by Langston Hughes. He pasted a Carl Sandburg quote near Sandburg's poem “Grass,” revealing that “The chief influence on my poetry was Abraham Lincoln. I have him soaked in my blood and brain and bone. After that are the proverbs of all nations and the music of the Negro.” There are musings on poetry and authors, education, business and parenting, as well as Arabic, Moorish and Chinese proverbs, several quotes of United States presidents and snippets on Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, slavery and “Man's Most Dangerous Myth – The Fallacy of Race.” We noted two clippings with dates: 1935 and 1985.

An incredible creative venture by a lesser-known Black publisher with a clear penchant for poetry and words. Good -. Item #9117

Price: $675.00