Mar 21, 2013 - Sale 2308

Sale 2308 - Lot 379

Unsold
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(LITERATURE AND POETRY.) [MICHEAUX, OSCAR.] The Conquest. The Story of a Negro Pioneer. Frontispiece of the author and 15 inserted plates; many of which are out of order. 8vo, variant binding of pale blue cloth lettered in white. Non-authorial signature, on the front end-paper, otherwise fine copy with almost none of the usual chipping and flaking to the white lettering. Lincoln, Nebraska: The Woodruff Press, 1913

Additional Details

first edition of the author's first novel, self-published---one of at least three binding variants. The Conquest is autobiographical, dealing with how the author's family was cheated out of their farm in Nebraska. Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) traveled extensively, promoting his first three novels. He based his second novel, "The Forged Note" on his experience during a book-selling tour; the third, The Homesteader, was a dramatization of the Conquest. When the Lincoln Motion Picture Company approached Micheaux in 1915 for the rights to "The Homesteader," Micheaux insisted on directing it. When they declined, he decided to film it himself. It was the first of over thirty films, many of them "short subjects", spanning several decades.