*SOLD*
 
The Black Panther Bible
 
Les Damnés de la Terre[The Wretched of the Earth]
Frantz Fanon
Paris, 1962
 
Stated second edition – comprised of the first edition sheets from the previous year(the publisher’s stiff wrappers and colophon leaf being the only differences). 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. The covers are rubbed around the edges and have general wear, top edge a bit dusty, a lengthy Spanish inscription on the half-title. The interior is fresh otherwise and the book is square and sound. A 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)