Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution
Black Jacobins Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution
Secker & Warburg, 1938.
First edition. Original black cloth in pictorial dustwrapper. Author's presentation copy, inscribed by the author, prior to publication, on the front endpaper, "For Gerry Bradley, from C.L.R.James, with revolutionary greetings and personal good wishes. August 26th 1938." A near fine copy with slightly dusty page edges in a superb, near fine dustwrapper with just a short closed tear to the rear panel and trivial wear to the head of the spine.
A rare presentation copy of James's seminal historical study of the Haitian Revolution, which remains a cornerstone of Caribbean studies. Gerry Bradley was an Irish Republican, a founder of the British Communist Party and a fellow Trotskyist. He had a reputation for trouble making and James recalls, in an interview in 1986, attempting to speak at a mainly Stalinist Communist meeting,
"Gerry was my good friend, he said to me, 'James, there will be the two of us
.' and we went into the meeting together. He stood up and said, 'Mr Chairman, Comrade James here has been standing up for the past half hour and wants to be able to say a few words
.'. The Communist Party did not want to give me the democracy, but they were afraid that Gerry would break up their meeting. Then Gerry turned to me and said, 'Mr James, come with me' and led me up to the platform. The audience listened, and I put the case for Trotskyism, and it wrecked their meeting."
The first edition is seldom found in the dustwrapper, particularly one so well preserved.
Stock ID: 45291
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