Redder Blood
New York: AMS Press, 1975.
Reprint. Hardcover. Very Good with no dust jacket. Item #14829
ISBN: 040411380X
Library stamps/marks/labels/pocket, otherwise light wear. Crisp hardcover.; Facsimile reprint of 1915 edition, New York: Cosmopolitan Press. Uncommon first novel, by Yale-educated Black author William Ashby. Geoffrey D Smith; American Fiction 1901-1925: A Bibliography; A-325. Wealthy white man marries black woman, not knowing she has Negro blood. When he finds out, he leaves her and their son, but returns. "A Word Please. Whoever reads this story must remember that it does not advocate miscegenation nor does it hint at the justification of intermarriage between the races except on a sentimental basis, and whoever interprets it otherwise reads into the story that which is not there. The book does day, however - and, I hope, strongly - that where two persons love each other deeply neither custom, nor convention, nor law are great enough barriers to keep them apart, else we should never have had an Othello and a Desdemona. Prohibitive legislations are not the best means to promote moral growth, for where attraction is strong, even in the face of law, subterfuges and illicit dealings abound very greatly. The Author." Ashby went on to become the first black social worker in New Jersey and a leader in the civil rights movement there. ; Ex-Library; 188 pages.
Price: $69.95