Masters of the Dew: A Novel of Haiti.
"You cannot eat a cluster of grapes at once, but it is very easy if you eat them one by one": First Edition of Roumain's Masters of the Dew: A Novel of Haiti; Inscribed by Langston Hughes
Masters of the Dew: A Novel of Haiti.
ROUMAIN, Jacques; Translated by Langston Hughes and Mercer Cook.
$1,250.00
Item Number: 130654
New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947.
First edition of this outstanding Haitian novel which tells of Manuel’s struggle to keep his little community from starvation during drought. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the translator Langston Hughes in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, “For Michael Alexander- Sincerely, Langston Hughes New York, Sept. 12, 1947. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Translated by Langston Hughes and Mercer Cook.
The genre of the peasant novel in Haiti reaches back to the nineteenth century and this is one of the outstanding examples. Manuel returns to his native village after working on a sugar plantation in Cuba only to discover that it is stricken by a drought and divided by a family feud. He attacks the resignation endemic among his people by preaching the kind of political awareness and solidarity he has learned in Cuba. He goes on to illustrate his ideas in a tangible way by finding water and bringing it to the fields through the collective labor of the villagers. In this political fable, Roumain is careful to create an authentic environment and credible characters.
