The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. New York: The Dial Press, 1971.
First edition.
Octavo. x, [1]-245, [1, blank] pp. Publisher’s full brown mottled leatherette, spine stamped in gilt, dust jacket. Jacket spine has two short closed tears at headcap, some minor edgewear, some rubbing to book. Still, a near fine copy that shows very well, and an excellent package.
First edition of his fourth novel. Presentation copy, inscribed by Gaines on the half-title: “To Dan Johnson=/Best wishes always,/Ernest Gaines/September 27, 1990/Lafayette, La.†With two autograph notes signed by Gaines, both addressed to Mr. Johnson, laid in. One is a postcard, dated September 15, 1990, asking Mr. Johnson to send the book (probably this book) to his address in Lafayette, LA (and gives his address); the other is an index card, dated September 27, 1990, thanking Mr. Johnson for collecting his books. Again, probably related to sending this book.
Ernest Gaines (born 1933) is the Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His 1993 book, A Lesson Before Dying won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This book, one of his best known, is the story of a 110 year old African-American former slave who gives an oral account of her life, speaking in length about the Civil War, slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow laws. The book is the basis of the 1974 television movie starring Cicely Tyson, winning seven Emmys, and the DGA award for that year.
ID:
3096
$
600