The Black Panther Bible
 
Les Damnés de la Terre[The Wretched of the Earth]
Frantz Fanon
Paris, 1961
 
First edition, first printing of one of the key works of the famed French West Indian psychiatrist philosopher - much of which was written in the spring of 1961 as he was dying of leukemia. It’s influenced revolutionaries across the globe in Africa, Palestine, Bangladesh, and here in the U.S.(Eldridge Cleaver called it the bible of the black revolutionary movement.)
 
A pretty rare book, and when it does appear, it’s usually tattered beyond wretchedness. General wear and some creases on the covers, small 1970 date stamp on first leaf, text block edges slightly foxed, otherwise pages very fresh. A sound, Very Good copy.
 
“The favorable reception of The Wretched of the Earth needs to be understood in terms of the movements of decolonization in the postwar world. The steady, ineluctable retreat of European colonialism evoked a feeling of excitement and expectancy throughout Asia and Africa. For a time all things were believed possible; it was the dawn of a new age, of a new chance for humanity. It was at the apogee of this wave of enthusiasm that The Wretched of the Earth was published. The forcefulness of its language, its condemnation of colonialism, and justification of armed resistance elicited an immediate response throughout the Third World. The book echoed the hopes and fears of its times, and it did so with an idealism that is hard to imagine being expressed today.”(Burke III)