Mumbo Jumbo.

REED, Ishmael.

Item Number: 133649

Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1972.

First edition of the author’s classic work. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “To Bob for Tinkering Ishmael.” Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Ishmael Reed and Allen Weinberg. Author photograph by Christa Fleishmann. Uncommon signed and inscribed.

Set in 1920s New York City, Mumbo Jumbo follows the story of elderly Harlem houngan PaPa LaBas and his companion Black Herman as they seek to determine the cause of the "Jes Grew" virus before the international Wallflower Order can suppress it. The narrative draws on conspiracy theory, hoodoo, and voodoo traditions, as well as the Afrocentric theories of Marcus Garvey and the occult author Henri Gamache. Unique in its format and typography, the structure of the book alludes to several typographic and stylistic conventions not normally associated with novels. "A dazzling maze of black-and-white history and fantasy, in jokes and outrage, erudition and superstition. Wholly original" (New York Times).