Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -
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Sale 2697 - Lot 270

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(LITERATURE.) Alice Walker. "To Hell With Dying," in "The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers," with her typescript biographical notes. xvii, [3], 508 pages. Octavo, 8 x 5½ inches, minimal wear; in original dust jacket with minor wear and fading to spine. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, [1967]
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Additional Details

First edition. This Langston Hughes-edited anthology includes 47 authors spanning seven decades, "in approximate chronological order of the authors' birth dates." As an elder statesman, Hughes's own story, "Thank You M'am," was one of the first stories in the book; he died just a few months after the anthology was released.

Alice Walker's "To Hell With Dying" appears as the closing work, on pages [490]-496. It was the first appearance in print for the 23-year-old aspiring author. Her short biographical blurb in the rear of the book explains that "She graduated from Sarah Lawrence in January 1966. She is now at work on a collection of short stories." The introduction by Hughes singles out Walker as a good candidate for a national grant: "Why not the astounding Miss Alice Walker? Neither you or I have ever read a story like 'To Hell With Dying' before. At least, I do not think you have." At least one reviewer agreed, Wes Lawrence of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Alice Walker . . . appears to have a brilliant career ahead of her" (16 February 1967). Her first volume of poetry was published in 1968, and her first novel followed in 1970. "To Hell with Dying" was later published as an illustrated children's story in 1988.

Laid into this copy are three additional leaves. One is what appears to be Walker's submission for the biographical blurb, written in first-person. It is a carbon typescript, with "Hughes" penciled in the upper corner. It is followed by another typescript carbon version of this biographical text, converted to third-person, and dated 28 April 1966. This was published in the anthology with only light editing. Finally, the lot includes a letter from the publishers to a producer at the Public Broadcasting Laboratory, sending the book as a review copy, 26 June 1967.

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