Monarchs of Minstrelsy from "Daddy" Rice to Date [Inscribed Copy]

First printing. Inscribed by Edward Le Roy Rice on front endpaper: "To my very dear friend Arthur Moreland with the author's best wishes," signed, datemarked New York City, May 6, 1911. Quarto. Blue cloth-covered boards with photographic pictorial insets; decorative titling in gilt; [14],366,[18]pp; illus. Slight external rubbing; internally clean, tight and unmarked, with mild toning to text; a sound, Very Good or better copy. An indispensable biographical reference to minstrel performers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rice (1871-1938), himself the son of a noted blackface performer, became not only a performing minstrel but also a producer, impresario, and noted scholar of the history of minstrelsy. He published no fewer than four books on the subject, and the current work remains the only comprehensive contemporary biographical encyclopedia of the minstrel stage, including many lesser-known performers whose names have by now been all but lost to history. This copy is inscribed to one such performer, Arthur Moreland, a successful dramatic actor who made the shift to minstrelsy in the mid-1870s and of whom Rice states: ".he has long been recognized as the premier interlocutor [a stock character in blackface shows, serving the role of Master of Ceremonies and straight man] in minstrelsy, and the legitimate successor of Wm. H. Bernard, who retired in 1872." Quite a nice copy of a book which, while never especially uncommon, is seldom encountered in nice condition. We have seen very few signed or inscribed examples. NOTE: This volume includes hundreds of photographic portraits of its subjects, many of which can only be described as deeply offensive. Indeed, there is no escaping the offensiveness of blackface performance. Yet despite the supremacist and subjugational roots of minstrelsy, its lasting impact on American literary, theatrical, and musical culture is also undeniable. As the most popular form of stage entertainment in America from roughly the 1870s to the 1920s, minstrelsy unquestionably shaped and reflected American middle-brow attitudes towards race, but it also served as a gateway to legitimate African-American musical and dramatic expression, as well as establishing many of the conventions for vaudeville (and by extension, modern) comedic performance. At Lorne Bair Rare Books we generally don't handle intentionally discriminatory or racist materials unless we feel they offer legitimate avenues for research. It is clear to us that the current work, given its historical scope and reference value, falls into this category.…