The Ballad of the Brown Girl: an Old Ballad Retold
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. (8), 11, (1)pp. Unopened. Quarter black cloth with paper spine label over yellow boards. Title and each leaf of text within a woodcut border. Illustrated with one double-page plate. The boards are soiled and the paper spine is a bit chipped. Though internally clean and unopened, this copy lacks the original slipcase.
Countee Cullen uses the traditional structure of the medieval ballad to retell a legend about an English lord who must choose between a Black bride and a white one, with deadly results. In a letter, the author described the poem as "quite a gruesome affair with no less than three murders in it. It is founded on an old song which every colored Kentuckian knows." (OCLC)
Countee Cullen (1903-1946) was an African-American poet and part of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1925 he won the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize and this book is dedicated to Witter Bynner. Item #52774
Price: $65.00