Inscribed by Hughes to One of His Closest Friends, and Signed by DeCarava
The Sweet Flypaper of Life.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955.
Price:
$7,500.00
First edition. Photographic illustrations by Roy DeCarava; 98 pp. 12mo. Original cloth backed paper boards. About near fine in photo illustrated dust jacket with some rubbing along foot of spine, otherwise similar. Roth 101, pp 138-9; Parr/Badger I, p. 242; Hasselblad pp 160-1.
Item #369379
Inscribed on the ffep, in the month of publication: “Especially for Noel – Sincerely, Langston. New York, Nov. 15, 1955.” Additionally signed by the photographer, Roy DeCarava.
The Sweet Flypaper of Life appeared in November 1955, just as Hughes was completing the manuscript for his second volume of autobiography, I Wonder as I Wander. The critical reception of the work was positive: “No book by Hughes was ever greeted so rhapsodically…. Calling it ‘a delicate and lovely fiction-document of life in Harlem,’ the New York Times praised its ‘astonishing verisimilitude’” (Rampersad, vol. II, p. 249). The Sweet Flypaper of Life remains "One of the most successful collaborations between a great writer and a great photographer ever published" (Roth 101). Hughes' text, spoken as Sister Mary Bradley, with DeCarava's photos, provide "a vital corrective to a book like Roll, Jordan, Roll" (Parr/Badger).
Hughes met Noël Sullivan in May 1932 while on a lecture tour, and the two developed a very close friendship. "The man and all he stood for endeared him to Hughes, and for a quarter of a century he was the poet's most trusted confidant. [...] as close a friend as any relative Hughes ever had..." (Berry, Faith, Before & Beyond Harlem: A Biography of Langston Hughes, p. 149-150). This was a two-way street, as “Hughes’s immediate impact on Noël Sullivan was…dramatic” (Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, Vol. I, p. 239). Sullivan helped sustain Hughes with occasional financial gifts, he hosted him on most of his visits to California, often gave Hughes the use of his farm in Carmel, where Hughes wrote his first collection of short stories, The Ways of White Folks (1934), which was dedicated to Sullivan.
Item #369379
Inscribed on the ffep, in the month of publication: “Especially for Noel – Sincerely, Langston. New York, Nov. 15, 1955.” Additionally signed by the photographer, Roy DeCarava.
The Sweet Flypaper of Life appeared in November 1955, just as Hughes was completing the manuscript for his second volume of autobiography, I Wonder as I Wander. The critical reception of the work was positive: “No book by Hughes was ever greeted so rhapsodically…. Calling it ‘a delicate and lovely fiction-document of life in Harlem,’ the New York Times praised its ‘astonishing verisimilitude’” (Rampersad, vol. II, p. 249). The Sweet Flypaper of Life remains "One of the most successful collaborations between a great writer and a great photographer ever published" (Roth 101). Hughes' text, spoken as Sister Mary Bradley, with DeCarava's photos, provide "a vital corrective to a book like Roll, Jordan, Roll" (Parr/Badger).
Hughes met Noël Sullivan in May 1932 while on a lecture tour, and the two developed a very close friendship. "The man and all he stood for endeared him to Hughes, and for a quarter of a century he was the poet's most trusted confidant. [...] as close a friend as any relative Hughes ever had..." (Berry, Faith, Before & Beyond Harlem: A Biography of Langston Hughes, p. 149-150). This was a two-way street, as “Hughes’s immediate impact on Noël Sullivan was…dramatic” (Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, Vol. I, p. 239). Sullivan helped sustain Hughes with occasional financial gifts, he hosted him on most of his visits to California, often gave Hughes the use of his farm in Carmel, where Hughes wrote his first collection of short stories, The Ways of White Folks (1934), which was dedicated to Sullivan.
