Feb 26, 2009 - Sale 2171

Sale 2171 - Lot 294

Unsold
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(LITERATURE AND POETRY.) WHITMAN, A[LBERY] A[LLSON]. Not a Man and yet a Man. Portrait frontispiece. 254 pages. Small 8vo, original blinded stamped cloth lettered in gilt on the upper cover; binding re-cased. Springfield, OH, 1877

Additional Details

first edition. Albery Allston Whitman (1851-1901) was born a slave in Kentucky. He attended Wilberforce University and this book of poetry (his third) was written to both inform the public at large as to the aims of the institution and to raise funds by sales. Rodney, the hero of Not a Man and Yet a Man, is of mixed blood, and chronicles his life through slavery and his eventual freedom. The book was well received in its day and was praised by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Porter, North American Negro Poets, page 84.