TAR BABY - INSCRIBED TO ROSLYN WIENER WYMAN

First Printing. Octavo (22cm); beige cloth, with titles stamped in gilt on spine and front cover; purple topstain; dustjacket; [x],[4],5-305,[5]pp. Inscribed by the author on the front endpaper several months after publication to Rosalind "Roz" Wiener Wyman: "Love to you, Roz / for your hospitality & your good fine work on "our" Council / Toni / Aug 17, 1981." Tiny indentation to lower right corner of front board, else a fresh, Fine copy, with the topstain bright and unfaded. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $11.95), gently spine-sunned and lightly edgeworn, with some toning to rear panel and on verso, with some mild offsetting from the marker inscription onto front flap; Very Good+. The Nobel Prize-winning author's fourth novel, set between the Caribbean, New York City, and the swamps of Florida. Through the principal characters a wealthy white couple retired to the Caribbean, their elderly Black domestic servants, the beautiful and sophisticated model that they have educated and sponsored, and the escaped convict she falls in love with the novel touches on many of the themes that appear in Morrison's work: race, female identity, and how to navigate life and love in a White world. A distinguished copy, inscribed to Roz Wiener Wyman (1930-2022), an American politician and noted patron of the arts, who had the distinction of becoming at 22 years old the youngest person ever elected to the Los Angeles City Council. According to the Annual Report for 1981, Wyman and Morrison served together as council members (along with Jacob Lawrence, I.M. Pei, Theodore Bikel, James Rosenquist, and 20 others) for the National Council on the Arts. Council members were appointed by the President and approved by the Senate for six-year, staggered terms, and given the level of warmth and solidarity conveyed in Morrison's inscription, it's clear the two women forged a meaningful relationship during their overlapping terms.…