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Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 4,500
(BIOGRAPHY.) BRUCE, JOHN EDWARD, Compiler. Eminent Negro Men and Women, in Europe and in the United States, with brief Extracts from their Writings and Public Utterances. Volume I (all published.) 103 pages. Tall 8vo, later. Yonkers, N.Y. [Gazette Press], 1910
first edition, inscribed by the author to t. thomas fortune esq., with the very best regards of his sincere friends, john e. bruce grit. Yonkers, NY, April 8/10. One could hardly imagine a better association copy between these two major african american journalists. John E. Bruce (1856-1924) was born into slavery in Piscatoway, Maryland. His father was sold to another master when Bruce was three. In 1860, his mother and he marched along side Union soldiers to freedom in Washington. There she worked as a domestic. In 1874 Bruce got a job in the Washington D.C. offices of the New York Times. In 1879, Bruce founded the weekly Argus, and in 1880 The Washington Grit, and in 1884, The Sunday Item. Over the Years, Bruce wrote for more publications than space allows us to list. Strangely, he published only two books, one of them the present title, the other a novelette, The Awakening of Hezekiah Brown. For all of his accomplishment, John E. Bruce, later known as Bruce Grit was largely self-educated. He was an early civil rights advocate and Pan-Africanist, supporting the unity of all African descended peoples. He helped found the American Negro Academy and it was Bruce who recommended Arthur A. Schomburg for membership. T. Thomas Fortune was a fellow newspaperman, editor and co-owner of several major African American periodicals: The New York Globe, The New York Freeman, and The New York Age.
