HUGHES, Langston (1901-1967). Dear Lovely Death. Amenia, NY: Troutbeck Press, 1931.

8vo. Frontispiece portrait by Amy Spingarn; printed on handmade paper by Dard Hunter. Original black cloth-backed orange pictorial boards, remnant of printed label on spine (some overall wear). Provenance: Noël Sullivan (presentation inscription, bookplate) ; by descent to present owner.

LIMITED EDITION, one of 100 copies printed for private distribution SIGNED BY HUGHES. PRESENTATION COPY, ADDITIONALLY INSCRIBED TO SULLIVAN: “For Noel – remembering Carmel-by-the-Sea, Langston June 4, 1932.”

After returning to California from Portland and Seattle in May of 1932 (see previous lot), Langston Hughes returned to the San Francisco area to give a reading at the University of California at Berkeley. From there, Hughes, traveled down the Monterey Peninsula with Noël Sullivan to give a reading in Carmel-by-the-Sea. “Singing spirituals in his sometimes wayward basso profundo, Sullivan shared the stage with Hughes in a program at the Community Theater sponsored by the local John Reed Club…..[There], the master photographer Edward Weston, another friend of Sullivan’s, photographed Langston” (Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, Vol. I, p.240). On June 3rd or 4th, Hughes left Carmel-by-the-Sea after a satisfying stay and headed south to Los Angeles; from there, he would travel to the Soviet Union (see Lot 218).

EXCEEDINGLY RARE: We trace no copies of this work at auction since 1980.

Fine African Americana from the Collections of Noël Sullivan & William P. and Alice D. Mahoney

HUGHES, Langston (1901-1967). Dear Lovely Death. Amenia, NY: Troutbeck Press, 1931.