The Woe Shirt [Signed]

Lincoln, Massachusetts: Panmaen Press, 1980. First Trade Edition. First Printing. Signed by Norman on the front free endpaper, dated July 2002. Limited to 2000 copies. Octavo (24cm); green cloth-covered boards, titled in gilt on the spine; dustjacket; 62pp; illustrations by Norman Laliberté; Fine. The dustjacket is unclipped (priced $12.50), lightly toned on spine pane, else Fine.

Collection of 13 Haitian folk tales. Paulé Bartón [1916-1974] was born in Haiti and earned a living as a goatherd—though he, like many on the island at the time, aspired to work as a storyteller, peddling tales in the markets of Port-au-Prince. At some point, he (truncated) was arrested and later exiled by the violent, repressive Duvalier regime, likely for violating Haiti’s loosely defined, and thus incredibly restrictive, law against “polluting the minds of tourists with information about Haiti not sanctioned by the government.” (Paris Review). (Inventory #: 53873)