Rolling Stone

Description

Inscribed copy of Rolling Stone: The Life and Adventures of Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore, from W.E.B. Du Bois to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Octavo, viii, 311pp. Green cloth, title printed with illustrations on spine and cover. Fraying of cloth along edges of spine, wear from handling. Endpapers solid, but some separation at front hinge between photographic illustrations and contents page. In publishers near fine dust jacket, light wear along top edge, dampstain to bottom edge, not affecting illustrations. Dust jacket likely added at a later date. Inscribed on the front free endpaper by W.E.B. Du Bois to Prime Minister David Lloyd George: “Many Happy Returns to ‘Lloyd George’ Nov. 5th, 1933 – from W.E.B.” An excellent association copy between two historical figures of the early 20th Century.

Comments: W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that “the destinies of mankind for a hundred years to come” were being negotiated in a “small room at the Hotel Crillon.” The small room he was referring to was at the Paris Peace Conference and the people in the room were Prime Minister David Lloyd George, President Woodrow Wilson, Clemenceau of France and Orlando of Italy. W.E.B. and Lloyd George’s first encounter occurred in Versailles, with Du Bois petitioning to address the peace conference. His efforts were unsuccessful, but he managed to speak at the first conference of the League of Nations in 1921, representing the NAACP. Du Bois developed a relationship with Lloyd George, writing often on issues of racial intolerance and racial inequality. De Bois often sent the former Prime Minister books and articles that he thought would interest him.