Dear Helaine and Joe: I don't know whether you can help me, but I thought I would try. Enclosed you will find some photocopies of a book I have. I have spent months trying to find its value. The only thing I have found out is that most people have not heard of it, and it is very rare. — L.A., Manson, Wash.
Dear L.A.: Books such as this one make many people quite queasy and we actually can be counted among that number. We are very sensitive to the kind of destructive stereotyping books of this nature promote, but we also know that this sort of item is widely collected, and some of the most avid enthusiasts are African-Americans.
And we feel this is a subject that needs to be hauled out into the sunlight, where the racial slurs it contains will hopefully shrivel up and die like the legendary vampire.
The book is titled "Negro Wit and Humor: Folk Lore, Folk Songs, Race Peculiarities and Race History," and it was written by Marion F. Harmon. It was published in Louisville, Ky., by Harmon Publishing Co. and is copyrighted 1914. In the foreword, it purports to be a serious work attempting to preserve the humor of "Old Time Darkies," and it is the author's contention that this is necessary because in the 50 years since the "Proclamation" (e.g. the Emancipation Proclamation) black Americans have become prosperous and well educated and that it represents a way of life that is vanishing.
Still, the book is filled front to back will all sorts of racial stereotypes that are now quite offensive.
Despite all this, we think this book is of interest to collectors of every race because it tells us where we have been and shows us racial attitudes many whites once had that we may have forgotten ever existed. Actually, some of these attitudes probably still exist, but they increasingly have been driven underground.
As for the book's rarity, we have seen a few copies over the years and as L. A. discovered at least 10 libraries around the country have it in their collections. It certainly is uncommon, and we have had a great deal of trouble pricing it.
We received this letter a little more than six months ago and initially we could find nothing about it or its value, so we put it aside. Now, however, we have found a copy for sale on a very useful Internet resource, www.abebooks.com.
The condition of the copy being offered for sale on that Web site sounds almost exactly like the condition of the one belonging to L. A., and it is priced at $300, which we think is a fairly sound insurance replacement or retail value.
Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of "Treasures in Your Attic" (HarperCollins, $18). Questions can by mailed to them at P.O. Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208.