SOUTH STREET

New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1954. First printing. Very good plus in very good plus jacket.. Scarce first edition of this postwar novel about three radically different brothers as they grapple with racism in 1950s Philadelphia, Smith's own hometown. This is the third novel written by Smith, whose work acts a bridge between the social protest novels of the '40s and '50s and the Black Nationalist writings of the 1960s. Born in Philadelphia, Smith would spend much of his life living in Paris, much like other Black writers disillusioned with American racism in the early 20th century. A journalist by trade, Smith would describe himself as a "man without country" and with the exception of a short period spent living in Ghana and a visit to the United States to write his final novel, he would live out the remainder of his life in France. SOUTH STREET is Smith's literary return to his native Philadelphia and the societal ills that plagued it. A lovely copy, scarce in this condition. 8'' x 5.25''. Original quarter green cloth, black paper boards, lettered in black to spine. In original, unclipped ($3.50) green pictorial jacket. 312 pages. Jacket with light edgewear, faint toning to spine and margins of front panel, few small spots of soil to rear panel. Book with tiny bit of bumping to corners and spots of soil to textblock edges. Bright. (Inventory #: 52851)