Sought-after unsigned first edition book: Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington. First edition. NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901. Hardcover bound in the publisher's red cloth with gilt title and top edge gilt, 5.5 x 8, 330 pages. Book condition: VG/None, with a modern ballpoint ownership inscription to first free end page, some minor edgewear, and a few small stains to textblock.
Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery is an autobiography that chronicles his life from a slave to a prominent African American leader and educator. The book details his efforts in founding the Tuskegee Institute, emphasizing the importance of education, hard work, and self-reliance. Washington's narrative also addresses the complexities of race relations in the post-Civil War United States, advocating for a gradual approach to racial equality. First serialized in The Outlook in 1900, it was then published by Doubleday in 1901. Washington's book became a best-seller, and remained the most popular African-American autobiography until that of Malcolm X.
