Ntozake Shange — Betsey Brown

New York, St. Martin's Press, 1985. First edition. Hardback. The first edition, first printing of this lesser known novel by Ntozake Shange, with the original unclipped dust wrapper. The first edition, first printing of the work. With the original unclipped dust wrapper.In the publisher's original quarter cloth binding with the author's name and work's title blind stamped into the front paper cover. Ntozake Shange was an American author who enjoyed a diverse and prolific career: as a poet, dramatist, novelist, essayist, and screenplay writer. Her play for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf was a formally experimental work and received, among several other accolades, an Obie award in 1977. Betsey Brown is Shange's coming of age novel about a young black girl in St. Louis, Missouri who is part of the first generation of students to be introduced to a desegregated public school system. In the original publisher's quarter cloth binding with the original unclipped dust wrapper. Externally, very excellent; just a touch of bumping to the head and tail of the spine and fractionally to the corners, and some very marginal discolouration to the top edge. A couple of very minor chips to the tail of the wrapper's spine and a few minor closed tears to head of the wrapper's spine and its top edge. The odd minor mark to the wrapper's rear and spine. Internally, firmly bound with lovely, bright, clean pages. Near Fine . Ill.: None. Near Fine/Very Good Indeed.