THE STATE OF BLACK DESIRE 3 poems...3 essays

First edition, first printing. Original paper wraps with title printed in black to the front cover. Illustrated with three black and white abstract compositions by Larry Potter. Inscribed by the author on the front endpaper: 'To Jim and Ailene, peace passes between perilous places - but the wounds do exist, Lindsay'. A good copy, the binding firm with marking to the covers, the wrapper detached from the page block. Small blue paint splashes around the spine. The contents with some occasional marking and foxing are otherwise in good order. A scarce title.

The uncommon first book by the Jamaican-born poet, novelist and essayist. Focussing on themes of black alienation, exile, and black art, the work is characteristic of the black aesthetic movement of the 1960s, and its notion that black art, particularly jazz and other black music, contained the basis for building a black movement in the western world. Provenance: from the library of Martin Stone.