The Best of Simple.
HUGHES, Langston.
The Best of Simple.
First edition of Langston Hughes' The Best of Simple; lengthily inscribed by him to American jazz impresario Art D'Lugoff
New York: Hill and Wang, 1961.
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Item Number: 129340
First edition of the fourth book in Hughes’ “Simple” series. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated by Bernhard Nast. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “Especially for Art ~ whose Village Gate is full of “simple” fun ~ Sincerely, Langston Harlem, U.S.A., 1962.” The recipient, Art D’Lugoff was an American jazz impresario. He opened The Village Gate, a jazz club in New York City’s Greenwich Village, in 1958 where he booked only the hottest and most prominent jazz artists, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Aretha Franklin, and Miles Davis, as well as the best in comedy, including Bill Cosby, Mort Sahl, Woody Allen, and John Belushi. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. An exceptional association.
Of all the fictional characters in modern African American literature, Simple is probably the most widely admired and beloved. From a humble beginning in a column for the Chicago Defender, he found his way into books, radio, television, and the musical comedy stage. He has been described as "a major figure in American literature" (Brooks Atkinson), as "far more than an uptown Mr. Dooley, a tart-tongued Will Rogers, or a very hipped Lenox Avenue Uncle Remus... probably the best combination of all three" (The New York Post), as as "the voice of the American Negro" (The New Republic). The fourth novel in the "Simple" series of books, The Best of Simple contains a selection of Hughes' own personal favorite Simple stories.
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