ANNIE ALLEN [Signed]

New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1949. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Octavo, 60 pages. In Good condition with a Good condition dust jacket. Dark brown spine with aged white lettering. Dust jacket is wrapped in a mylar covering, price is uncut "Price $2.50", has mild age-toning, mild shelving wear, small stains on the rear cover, a small tear along the rear cover tail edge, and mild wear along the extremities. Boards have mild wear along the extremities. Textblock has moderate age-toning along the end-pages and pastedowns, mild wear along the hinges between the end-pages and pastedowns, mild adhesive wear along the pastedowns, moderate age-toning along the edges, and mild wear along the edges. Contains a monochrome frontispiece and a loose blue "Pulitzer Prize Winner 1949" poster. Inscription on title page reading "For Dick, Sincerely Gwendolyn Brooks", dated 'October 29, 1991'. DL consignment. Shelved in Case 5. Gwendolyn Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, but moved at six weeks to the South Side of Chicago as a part of the Great Migration. A born writer, Brooks was greatly encouraged to write by her mother, getting her first poem published at 13 and becoming a regular contributor to the black-run paper "The Chicago Defender" by age 18. Brooks would always feel her true home was Chicago, and her works have always focused on the black experience there.

"Annie Allen" released in 1949 and would be Brooks's second book of poetry, the first being "A Street in Bronzeville" released in 1945. It released to great critical acclaim, earning the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the "Poetry" magazine's Eunice Tietjens Prize the same year. The poems follow a young black girl, Annie, growing into womanhood in Bronzeville Chicago. The book is dominated by "The Anniad", a heroic poem written to mimic Virgil's "Annead", Annie's heroism coming from her survival against steep adversity. The book ends with Annie's outlook on the world she'd like to change. 1386981. Shelved Dupont Bookstore. (Inventory #: 1386981)