Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

TAYLOR, Mildred D.

Item Number: 124325

New York: The Dial Press, 1976.

First edition of the author’s classic Newbery Award winning novel. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “To Lois and Ransom Richardson, who in the short time I have known them have brightened my life. My very best wishes to you and yours. Mildred D. Taylor March 28, 1977.” Fine in a fine dust jacket. This copy bears the Newberry sticker on the dust jacket, but is the first issue, without mention of the Newberry Award. This sticker was most likely placed on the front cover at the bookstore, while there were still first printings on the shelf. A very sharp copy, uncommon signed.

The novel explores the struggles of African Americans in 1930s Southern Mississippi through the perspective of nine year old Cassie Logan. Taylor uses the novel to highlight several themes including Jim Crow segregation, Black landownership, sharecropping, the Great Depression and lynching. In addition to a Newbery Medal, the novel was also a National Book Award finalist and Coretta Scott King Award honoree. It was the basis for the 1978 film directed by Jack Smight and starring Claudia McNeil, Janet MacLachlan and Morgan Freeman.