1987 Native Son Richard Wright First Edition Library FEL Facsimile

Native Son by Richard Wright. First Edition Library, Shelton, Connecticut, 1987. First edition FACSIMILE. Slip case measures 8.75 x 5.75". 359 p. In very good condition. Slip case exhibits light shelf wear. Dust jacket remains attractive. Small spots of soiling on rear board. Text-block is bright and clean. Binding is tight and intact. Please see photos. Richard Wright was an American author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially related to the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries suffering discrimination and violence. His best known works include the novella collection Uncle Tom's Children (1938), the novel Native Son (1940), and the memoir Black Boy (1945). Literary critics believe his work helped change race relations in the United States in the mid-20th century. First Editions Library (FEL) is a series of exact facsimile replicas of the first editions published by Collectors’ Reprint Inc. Founded in 1987 by Henry Reath, a former president and publisher of Doubleday; his wife, Mary; and Kemp Battle, who also worked at Doubleday, the company prided itself on publishing the best of American literature as it first appeared. FEL facsimiles have the same weight, size, typeface, art, dust jacket, finish and texture as well as points of issue as the originals. In many cases, the Reaths and Battle waded into debate amongst themselves about which editions were indeed the first. With the mission of duplicating the originals as closely as possible, the publisher hired engravers to reproduce typefaces that are no longer used. They dyed both sides of paper to create a shade of green no longer available for the dust jacket on Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey. The sewn bindings, stamping and even the original price on the jacket flap of FEL facsimiles are all exact replicas. The heart of the FEL series is literary fiction of the 19th and 20th centuries, including modern classics like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, and William Faulkner’s Absalom Absalom. However, there are four categories of exception: James Bond series (14 titles), mystery series (13 titles), science fiction series (12 titles), and Published in Paris series (3 titles). In total, FEL produced 112 titles. Sometime in the 1990s, FEL stopped production and sold the rights for 49 of its facsimiles to Easton Press. However, the remaining 63 titles are out-of-print. RAREN1987ABBB MC64 26/01. …