FRANK, Waldo.

City Block

Item #85067

FRANK, Waldo. City Block. Orig. cloth-backed paper boards. Darien, CT: Waldo Frank, 1922. One of 25 lettered copies hors commerce, this being no. Y. Inscribed by Frank to author Jean Toomer on front flyleaf: "To my brother Jean Toomer W. W. Frank Washington, Sept. 2, 1922." Having only begun their literary correspondence in March of that year, this copy is known to have been exchanged at the start of their journey to Spartanburg, SC, in the fall of 1922, during which both posed as Black men (Frank was Jewish; Toomer was of mixed ancestry and later bristled as being marketed as a "Negro writer"). Toomer's most acclaimed novel, Cane, would be published the following year, and Frank served as editor and mentor to Toomer in the publishing process, even writing the introduction to Cane. Moreover, Toomer had enthusiastically promoted City Block, which Frank had decided to publish by subscription only in order to shield his usual publisher, Horace Liveright, from prosecution under obscenity laws. However, their intense friendship ended when Toomer's affair with Frank's wife came to light, though Toomer would later claim that it was due to his disappointment with Frank's emphasis on Toomer as a black writer in his critical work. Some minor soiling to covers, else a very good untrimmed copy with wonderful association.

Price: $6,500.00