Significant unsigned first edition book: The Conjure Woman by Charles W. Chesnutt. First edition. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899. Hardcover bound in the publisher's original brown pictorial cloth with title in gilt, 4.75 x 7, 229 pages. Book condition: VG/None, with dampstaining to extreme edges of the textblock and contemporary ownership inscriptions to the first free end page.
First published in 1899, The Conjure Woman is considered a seminal work of African-American literature. Through seven short stories set in Patesville, North Carolina, Chesnutt sheds light on the complexities of race relations in the post-Civil War South, challenging stereotypes and offering a nuanced portrayal of African-American life. By incorporating elements of conjure, or folk magic, Chesnutt not only preserves a rich cultural heritage but also addresses themes of power, oppression, and resistance. In The Art of the Conjure Woman, critic and scholar Richard E. Baldwin argues that Chesnutt is 'the ultimate conjure man, hoping that by 'wukking de roots' of black culture he might be able to work a powerful goopher on white America and lead it to accept the equality of the black.'
