Black-Label

First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on pur fil, the only deluxe copies.

A rare and fine copy.

"A thunderclap of a title, a bitter draught that rings out like "Blue Note" in jazz, like "Cuba libre" among Caribbean cocktails. Damas, the stammerer, sings of solitude, the fear of being abandoned by the woman he loves and waits for, the sorrow and cowardice of "whitening," as do the jazz musicians he venerates" (Kathleen Gyssels)

This long, sung and extraordinary poem bears Damas's mythic line: "three rivers run through my veins", evoking his Amerindian, Creole, and African roots also marked by bitterness and despair: "We the wretched / we the worthless / we the nothings / we the dogs / we the Skeletons / we the Negroes". His lasting friendship with the Black American poet Claude McKay, whom he met in Montparnasse alongside Langston Hughes and Alain Locke, is acknowledged in the epigraph to the work.

A superb copy of this unified poem of revolt and love, especially rare as a deluxe issue.