About this Item
First printing of the first UK edition. Originally published in the US by Atheneum, New York, 1961. ***Near fine in red cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. Boards clean and unmarked. No bumps or creases. Corners sharp. No foxing to the page block edges. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally also near fine with no inscriptions. Pages clean. No foxing - just some light offsetting to the endpapers. No creases or tears. ***In a near fine colour-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 15s net. The dustwrapper is complete, with just very light rubbing to the extremities. No creases, chips or tears. Unusually, there is virtually no fading to the light-sensitive red colour on the spine of the dustwrapper. Back panel lightly marked (being a white background). Dustwrapper crisp and bright. ***177 pages plus a note on the author at the back of the book. 200mm x 135mm. ***'Paule Marshall (April 9, 1929 - August 12, 2019) was an American writer, best known for her 1959 debut novel "Brown Girl, Brownstones". Marshall received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1961 and in the same year published "Soul Clap Hands and Sing", a collection of four novellas that won her the National Institute of Arts Award. In 1965, she was chosen by Langston Hughes to accompany him on a State Department-sponsored world tour, on which they both read their work, which was a boon to her career. She subsequently published the novels "The Chosen Place, the Timeless People" (1969), which the New York Times Book Review called "one of the four or five most impressive novels ever written by a black American", and "Praisesong for the Widow" (1983), the latter winning the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award in 1984. In 1992, at the age of 63, Marshall was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship grant.' (Wiki) ***'In four remarkable stories, the author explores the themes of loss and waste, loneliness and self-deception, through the lives of four old men - a small landowner on the island of Barbados, a college professor in Brooklyn, the last of the line of a proud Creole family in British Guiana, and a nightclub comedian in Brazil. These men are separate and distinct, yet they are joined by a common tragedy. They have, each in his own way, sinned against life and themselves, and have been in different ways dishonest. Realizing this, each reaches out in a last desperate and eloquent attempt to take hold of life, to rest from it some answer before he dies.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***A scarce title, and uncommon in this near fine condition. The author's first collection of stories, and second published work, containing four novellas: Barbados, Brooklyn, British Guiana and Brazil .***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.***. Seller Inventory # 5094r
Contact seller
Report this item
Bibliographic Details
Title: SOUL CLAP HANDS AND SING (First UK edition -...
Publisher: W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd., London
Publication Date: 1962
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
Edition: First UK Edition
