Eugene G. O'Neill — The Emperor Jones; Diff'rent; The Straw

Boni and Liveright New York First Edition Near Fine Condition Very Good 19.5cm x 13cm. xii, 285 pages. Quarter cloth, papered boards, black lettering, pictorial jacket. First edition, first state binding, in the original pictorial jacket. The Emperor Jones was a watershed in American theatre, one of the first major Broadway productions to feature a Black actor in a leading dramatic role of such prominence, originally performed by Charles S. Gilpin and later by Paul Robeson in a role that helped establish his international stage reputation. A bold expressionist exploration of fear, power, and racial consciousness, the play remains a landmark text in both African-American theatrical history and the development of modern American drama. ATKINSON A 15-I-i.a. Also includes Diff'rent, a two-act study of sexual repression in a New England fishing village, and The Straw, a naturalistic drama drawn from O'Neill's own experience in a tuberculosis sanatorium. Very minor shelf wear to boards. Some restoration to jacket along folds, crease to lower pane. Category: Performing Arts; Literature & Fiction; Performing Arts::Theatre & Plays; North America; 20th Century: 1920s; African-American Studies. Inventory No: 0037288.