Description
The first edition of Josephine, the autobiography of Josephine Baker, with four signed photographs from various points in her life.
Octavo, xiii, 302pp. Black cloth, title stamped in gilt on the spine. Stated “First Edition” on the copyright page. Faint dust along top edge of the text block, internally clean. In the publisher’s dust jacket, $12.95 on the front flap, light shelf wear, closed tear at head of the spine, a very good example.
Includes four signed photographs of Josephine Baker, all from the late 1930’s – 1940’s.
Josephine Baker (1906-1975), a dancer and actress, was the first Black woman to appear in a major motion picture (Siren of the Tropics). Baker was a notable member of the Civil Rights Movement who refused to perform for segregated audiences. She was offered a leadership role in the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., but declined to protect her children’s safety. Baker and her husband, Jon Bouillon, raised 12 adopted children, which she deemed “The Rainbow Children” due to their varying ethnicities and religions. Her goal was to prove that a diverse group of people “could still be brothers.”
