(JAMAICA) Heaven Violet The Negro Alphabet

Sale 2420 - Lot 359

Price Realized: $ 812

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(JAMAICA.) Heaven, Violet. The Negro Alphabet. 9 illustrated leaves including title. Folio, disbound; dampstaining to title page, worn throughout with several tears and old cello tape stains, professionally conserved and stabilized. Kingston, Jamaica: Aston W. Gardner & Co., [1897]

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The author Violet Dora Heaven (1868-1916) was born in Jamaica, but settled in England by 1886 and spent the remainder of her life there. This book demonstrates Jamaican Patois in rhyming alphabet form, with caricatured illustrations and translations into standard English. Heaven produced one other book and a series of postcards in this vein. While this work may seem satirical, it has enough grounding in authentic Patois to be cited as a source in the 2002 Dictionary of Jamaican English. Cundall, Jamaica 871. Only 3 copies in OCLC and none known at auction.