DUMAS, Henry; edited by Hale Chatfield and Eugene Redmond

Ark of Bones and Other Stories

Published by Southern Illinois University Press, Cabondale and Edwardsville, 1970 [first edition]

165x241mm; xviii, [2], 116, [3]

At the time of his early death in 1968, age 33, at the hands of a New York City Transit police officer, Dumas was just becoming known as an author of innovative fiction and poetry. Through the work of his colleague Eugene Redmond and editor of the Hiram Poetry Review Hale Chatfield, Southern Illinois University Press issued the present volume and a volume of poetry entitled Poetry for My People.

In 1974 Amiri Baraka celebrated Dumas' work in his important essay on 'Afro-Surrealism', placing Dumas in the 1960s 'Black Arts Movement', and writing "The world of Ark of Bones, for instance, shares a black mythological lyricism, strange yet ethnically familiar! Africa, the southern U.S., black life and custom are motif, mood and light, rhythm, and implied history." In the same year Toni Morrison wrote that Dumas "had written some of the most beautiful, moving, and profound poetry and fiction that I have ever in my life", and successfully psersuaded Random House to re-issue his work.

Subsequent editions and the discovery of hitherto-unpublished work has secured Dumas' repution as one of the leading Black writers of the 20th century, especially in the short story form. His work his been cited as an influence on many writers, and also on rap lyrics and shows such as Donald Glover's Atlanta.

Very good condition: unclipped dust-jacket lightly marked, with faint yellowing to the spine; two small closed tears along top edge; near fine cloth-covered boards; clean and bright throughout.