Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598

Sale 2598 - Lot 305

Price Realized: $ 4,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(LITERATURE.) High school yearbook of Lorraine Hansberry and Sam Greenlee, inscribed by each. Issue of "The Purple and White," the yearbook of Englewood High School in Chicago. [3]-124 pages. 4to, original gilt pictorial cloth, minor wear; lacking first leaf (half-title?); inscribed by dozens of classmates and staff on the appropriate pages or rear flyleaves. Chicago, January 1948

Additional Details

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry is pictured on page 36 among her high school's February midyear graduates, credited as "President, Forum; Gym secretary." Her ambition: "To be a journalist." She has inscribed the book "Good luck & success, '48" with an arrow pointing to her name. She can also be seen on page 105 in the group portrait of the school's debate forum. Although Hansberry was just 11 years away from being the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway, she is not to be found on the rolls of the school's drama club on pages 90-94.

One nationally renowned author would be more than a typical high school class would have a right to expect. However, Samuel E. Greenlee, Jr. also appears on page 55, among the expected June graduates, noting his membership on the track team and a desire "to excel in law." He has inscribed the book "Good luck and best wishes, Samuel E. Greenlee Jr." He can also be seen with the track team on page 117; he won a track scholarship to the University of Wisconsin. His 1969 novel "The Spook Who Sat by The Door," about a renegade Black C.I.A. operative, was later made into a successful film.