70 Soul Secrets of Sapphire

San Francisco: Sapphire Publishing Company, 1973. Second Edition. Very good +. 8½” x 5½”. Perfect bound thin card wrappers. pp. 158. Very good plus: minimal wear, a few small ink marks to front wrap; tiny tear at foot of spine.

This is the second edition of a book by Carolyn Jetter Greene, a Bay Area psychologist who wrote it while working as a college counselor. From Greene's introduction:

“'Sapphire' is a jive name used to refer to a Black woman. In one sense it represents an insult. In quite another sense it refers to a collection of physical attributes, personality traits, mannerisms, feelings, attitudes, aspirations, and (truncated) problems most peculiar to that unique group of super-women who have weathered well the storm of the Black Experience in America.

This collection of seventy epithets about the Black woman was compiled as a direct result of my need to confront my heritage in terms of the complete scope of Black womanhood . . . Recordings here have been extrapolated from observation, from listening to Black women discuss themselves and other Black women, and from listening to Black men discuss Black women . . . I hope that you will read this book in both a somber and humorous manner . . . May all of the Sapphires who read this gain a 'consciousness of kinship' as we continue in the struggle to one day 'lay our burdens down.'”

Following the introduction are 70 short statements on Black womanhood, ranging from the uplifting: “Sapphire is the 'mammy' of them all; she has done more than her share of loving and raising children—her own and everybody else's,” to depressing realistic commentary: “Sapphire realizes that the white world visualizes her best in one of two roles—maid or prostitute.” Some express frustration such as “Sapphire has been accused of being 'evil' so much that she's convinced that the trait is in her genes,” while others are simply silly, “Sapphire has a behind so big, high and protruding she could easily carry a passenger.” Opposite each statement is a terrific illustration which augments the statement and gives it deeper meaning.

A visceral and visual exploration of the experience of Black womanhood. OCLC locates 16 copies of the first edition, and 22 of the second. (Inventory #: 7983)