Claude McKay. BANJO: A STORY WITHOUT A PLOT. New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1929. Stated first edition; first printing (Harper code C-D (March 1929) on copyright). Hardcover. Quarter black cloth over orange and navy paper-covered boards, gilt on spine, top edge stained, decorative endpapers, in original orange jacket designed by Aaron Douglas. 8vo; 326pp. Ownership signature of W. Edward Farrison, former English professor at North Carolina Central University in Durham, written in ink on front paste-down. Whiteman p. 35; Perry 377.

7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.

Banjo, set in Marseille in the 1920s, was McKay's second novel and an important novel of the Harlem Renaissance. It was later loosely adapted into the 1937 film Big Fella.

Boards with minor edgewear, slight separation from text block with typical light wear at spine ends; interior lightly toned with minor grime and offsetting on endpapers and half-title verso, title page with indentations from erased writing in pencil and a page with underlining in red; unclipped jacket ($2.50) with scuffs, light grime, and minor edgewear, spine and jacket folds sunned, chips at spine ends; Very good/very good.