[Item #4669] All God's Chillun Got Wings and Welded. Eugene O'Neill.
All God's Chillun Got Wings and Welded
All God's Chillun Got Wings and Welded
All God's Chillun Got Wings and Welded
All God's Chillun Got Wings and Welded

All God's Chillun Got Wings and Welded

New York, NY: Boni and Liveright, 1924. First Edition. Hardcover. "(Re: All God's Chillun Got Wings) Two months before its announced premiere at the Provincetown Playhouse, Eugene O'Neill's latest work found itself already the most talked of play of the present season. Its theme- the demoralizing consequences of the marriage of a white and a black- has aroused the ire of a multitude of citizens who, completely overlooking the formality of reading the play, has bombarded the newspapers with protests against its production...Welded is the first new Eugene O'Neill play to find its way to Broadway in two years, and its reception by New York dramatic critics indicates once more that O'Neill is recognized today as America's leading playwright." (from front & back flaps) Two classic plays by Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), the iconic Nobel Prize-winning American playwright whose works have been canonized in the Library of America series. All God's Chillun Got Wings was among O'Neill's most controversial plays, very daring for its time as it dived headlong into the contemporary topic of "miscegenation." The first production featured the great Paul Robeson in the role of Jim Harris, the African-American husband undermined by his resentful white wife. Welded is one of O'Neill's lesser-remembered works, but is exemplary in its deep dissection of a turbulent marriage. Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $2.00 price printed on spine), first edition, presumed first printing as there is no reference to any further printings on copyright page as per custom of this venerable American publisher. An essential O'Neill collectible in its rarest original form & exceptionally very fine condition: Book with only slight rubbing & wear to edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; a few tiny bumps, creases at same incl. miniscule loss of surface paper at upper edge of back cover near left corner; one very small spot-stain with faint trailings at blank rear cover board; mild-to-moderate rubbing & light browning to upper edge of text block; much less to side & lower edges of same (the former untrimmed as issued). Interior very fine with only very slight rubbing & occasional spotting to paste-downs & endpapers; quaint, vintage contemporary bookseller's sticker incl. hand-penciled original price affixed to rear paste-down at upper left corner, edge & margin; all leaves with only a hint of browning mostly at blank margins, otherwise substantially mint. Dust jacket very fine & bright with only light rubbing mostly to thin edges & corners of front, back covers, spine & flaps; very slight wear & some tiny bumps, creases at same incl. several short, all-but-completely closed tears at upper edge of back cover, lower right edge-margin of back cover (relatively longest), lower cover-flap corners & lower spine-corners. We note that a slight production flaw (folding miscalibration) as issued has resulted in the text of spine running slightly onto front cover, & text of rear flap onto edge between same & rear cover. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #4669]

Price: $120.00