NY, Knopf, 1981. The first trade edition of the fourth novel by the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author. Inscribed by Morrison to the novelist James Baldwin: "Love to you Jimmy/ Toni." Morrison and Baldwin first met in 1973, when she was an editor at Random House and was negotiating with him to sign a contract for a book. Although no contract came out of that negotiation, a friendship was born: Baldwin wrote to his friend and sometime assistant, David Leeming, that "I dig Toni, and I trust her." Over the years they had considerable contact: they both took part in a symposium on "the nature of a humane society," and she was invited to attend the private screening of the film about him, "I Heard it Through the Grapevine." In later years she visited him at his home in France, and when he died she gave a tribute at his funeral, in which she called him "a brother" and now "an ancestor." The front edge of the front flap has a small sticker shadow; else a fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket, with none of the typical spine fading, in custom chemise and slipcase. A spectacular association copy: inscribed by the first African-American Nobel Prize winner to the preeminent African American expatriate writer of the 20th century, whose writings -- and whose refusal to accept the racial discrimination of his home country -- helped shape the literature of successive generations of black writers, and to elevate African American literature into the mainstream of American literature. We've never seen a remotely comparable association copy of one of Morrison's books. [#027673] SOLD

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