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GARNER, ELVIRA C. Ezekiel. Original manuscript. Pen, ink and watercolor. Six folio sheets, folded, to create self-wrappers with illustrated cover, frontispiece, and 14 pages of manuscript text with watercolor illustrations throughout, followed by two rear blanks. Accompanying the manuscript are 6 small paper, cloth and wire figures of the characters from the book, and a folded mimeographed folio sheet of the "Seminole News Letter, Volume 1, number 2" containing an Ezekial cartoon. [Florida,] circa 1935
the original manuscript for garner's first wildly popular book, accompanied by her handmade doll characters. The author- illustrator Elvira Garner (1886-1956) was 51 when her first book brought her sudden fame. Garner drew her characters from the folks in and around the little town of Sanford, Florida. In that regard, she was not unlike the African American author Zora Neale Hurston, who drew her characters from real people in her town of Eatonville, Florida. Garner's first book, Ezekiel, was published by Henry Holt in 1937, and told the story of a little black boy who lived in Sanford with his "Mammy," "Pappy" and sister "Emancipation." Emblematic of Florida when it was part of the Deep South, Ezekiel was written in African-American dialect, and was tremendously popular. But in the early days of the civil rights struggle, books like Little Black Sambo, and Ezekiel, as well as radio and television programs like Amos and Andy stereotyping African Americans were essentially "purged" from popular culture. The accompanying Seminole News Letter is dated March, 1942 and prints an Ezekial cartoon by Garner on the front page titled "Hits an ill wind dat blows nobody no good! [Ezekiel]." The charming and skilfully crafted small doll figures are of Ezekiel, his parents, younger siblings sister, Emancipation, his brother, Lil Plural, and their baby brother, Assefetida, all of whom appear in the book.
