The Autobiographies of Angelo Herndon and Paul Robeson, In Original Jackets

To include:

Angelo Herndon. LET ME LIVE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANGELO HERNDON. New York: Random House, 1937. Stated first printing. Hardcover. Brick red cloth-covered boards with facsimile signature on the front cover and stamped in black over red ground on the spine; in unclipped ($2.50) pictorial dust jacket. 8vo; [6], [1-2]-409, [1]pp. With frontispiece and illustrations. (Boards with only minor wear and toning; interior with toning and erased writing in pencil; jacket with toning, negligible spotting, typical creasing and rubbing at folds, edge wear with chips and closed tears, and with a 1 3/4-in. tear at the front and a strip of tearing and loss at the spine. For its age, a very good to near fine copy in an approaching very good jacket.)

Paul Robeson. HERE I STAND. London: Dennis Dobson, 1958. Stated second impression. Hardcover. Burgundy cloth-covered boards with gilt-lettering on the spine; in photographic jacket. 8vo; [1-8]-128pp. (Boards with very light rubbing to extremities; offsetting and ownership stamp on front endpapers; interior with light toning and occasional minor handling wear; final text page attached to rear free endpaper impacting the text near the inner margin; jacket with toning, some soiling including small damp stains concentrated at the spine, creasing, and some edge wear with chipping and a couple of small tears. About very good in good to very good jacket.)



8 1/4 x 5 7/8 in.; 8 3/8 x 5 5/8 in.

From a Private North Carolina Collection

Angelo Herndon (1913-1997), an African American labor organizer in Atlanta, Georgia, was arrested in 1932 and charged with "attempting to incite insurrection." He was released on bail "– $15,000, raised in pennies, nickels, dimes by workers and sympathizers throughout the world" and he wrote Let Me Live while awaiting the Supreme Court's decision, which ultimately granted him his freedom. During this time, Herndon became "a symbol of all the workers, white and black, whose lot is poverty and insecurity when they are passive, and violence and death when they resist." (from rear jacket flap)

Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was an African American singer, actor, scholar, and athlete. Although he states in the foreword that Here I Stand was not intended as an autobiography, it offers a close look at his life along with offering a call to fight for civil rights.