HUGHES, Langston and Roy DeCARAVA. The Sweet Flypaper of Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955.

8vo. Photographic illustrations by Roy DeCarava. Original white cloth-backed black boards; publisher's dust jacket (abrasion on front panel, some rubbing and chipping, some toning). Provenance: Noël Sullivan (presentation inscription); by descent to present owner.

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED IN THE MONTH OF PUBLICATION BY HUGHES TO SULLIVAN: “Especially for Noel – Sincerely, Langston. New York, Nov. 15, 1955.” ADDITIONALLY SIGNED by Roy DeCarava.

The Sweet Flypaper of Life appeared in November 1955, just as Hughes was completing the manuscript for his 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, Life, Vol. II, p.249). For his part, Roy DeCarava “looked at their book and almost burst into tears…..[expecting] a big glossy book with [his] photographs lavishly laid out,” but the critical reception brought him around (ibid., p249). The Sweet Flypaper of Life remains "one of the most successful collaborations between a great writer and a great photographer ever published" (101 Books, pp.138-9). Auer, p.357; The Photobook, vol. I, p. 242 ("A publishing success and... an important step forward").


Fine African Americana from the Collections of Noël Sullivan & William P. and Alice D. Mahoney