Lot 300
Harris, Joel Chandler
Uncle Remus, his songs and sayings
£882
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 07 February 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881. First edition, first state, with "presumptive" in the last line of p.9 and 8pp. of undated adverts not mentioning this title, original green cloth gilt with gilt Brer Rabbit motif to upper cover, gift inscription
Footnote
Joel Chandler Harris gathered this collection of stories whilst speaking with enslaved people on a plantation in Georgia in the 1880s. Believing that it was important to record these tales, he wrote them down, with the fictional narrator, 'Uncle Remus'. The work has become an important written source of African American storytelling traditions. However, the book (and the film that it would later inspire, Song of the South), portray the life of enslaved people as somewhat idyllic, as opposed to the harsh and brutal reality, alongside perpetuating stereotypes of African American people. Thus, the work is simultaneously an important and beautifully bound, but problematic book.
