Inscribed to a Chicago Friend
How "Bigger" Was Born.
New York: Harper & Brothers, [1940].
Price: $5,000.00
About the item
First edition. 1 vols. 8vo. Inscribed to a Chicago Friend. Yellow printed wrappers, somewhat soiled and darkened at edges, but sound. In cloth clamshell box.
Item #56128
With a wonderful inscription from Wright to his close personal friend, Abe Aaron: "To Abe, in memory of the Old John Reed Club days. Dick. 10/11/40 Brooklyn."
Wright met Abe Aaron in 1930 in Chicago, where both were working in the Chicago Post Office, nicknamed "The University." Aaron helped introduce Wright to the circle of intellectuals and radicals in the area. In 1934, Aaron helped promote Wright's poems into publication, writing to his friend Jack Conroy, publisher of ANVIL: "Isn't he swell? And he is absolutely self-educated ... He also writes short stories. On that score he considers me as a kingpin compared to himself. He sees what luck I'm having. So he never submits ... "
Conroy, impressed with Wright's work, published a poem in ANVIL and referred both Aaron and Wright to the John Reed Club. Named for the author of TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD, a history of the communist revolution in Russia, the clubs were founded nationwide in 1931, lasting only until 1934. During his brief membership before the clubs were dissolved, Wright became an officer of the chapter. The disbanded groups of artists and intellectuals fed the ranks of the League of American Writers, of which Aaron and Wright became prominent members
A wonderful association copy.
