Murray, Pauli (1910-1985) Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956.
First edition, first printing with Harper code "I-F" on copyright page, octavo; publisher's red cloth-backed boards, stamped in white; with the unclipped illustrated dust jacket (two small, closed tears to upper edge, minor soiling to rear panel, faint toning to verso; tiny stain to title); 8 3/8 x 5 1/2 in.
Based on stories and recollections told by her relatives, Murray's Proud Shoes reconstructs a century of her family's ancestral history. It paints a moving portrait of an American family, one which, "counts among its forebearers slave-owning aristocratic Southerners, Cherokee Indians, free-born Yankee Negroes, a white woman of Swedish French descent." Murray's tone throughout is one of passion and pride, as she recounts stories that not only entertain, but also push the reader to engage with "the racial and social dynamics between the union of a free black family from the north and a mixed-race family of the south." (The National Museum of African American History and Culture).
