Fenton Johnson. A LITTLE DREAMING. Chicago: The Peterson Linotyping Company, 1913. First edition. Hardcover. Red cloth-covered boards with gilt design and lettering on cover, no jacket (likely as issued). Thin 8vo; 80pp. With frontispiece and one plate. Ownership signature of W. Edward Farrison, former English professor at North Carolina Central University in Durham, written in ink on front paste-down.

7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.

Fenton Johnson (1888-1958) was a Chicago-based poet and editor. A Little Dreaming was his first collection of poetry. "Johnson is considered an important forerunner of the Harlem Renaissance; his poetry has been characterized as a bridge between late-nineteenth-century writers such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and the more idiosyncratic jazz rhythms of Langston Hughes" (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/fenton-johnson).

Boards with light damp staining and marks, edgewear, corners rubbed and bumped, and spine sunned with wear at ends including small cloth loss at head; pages lightly toned with occasional small mark or minor grime, several including title page with light damp staining, otherwise interior is clean and unmarked; some gutter cracking between pgs. 32 and 33, and between 48 and 49. A good copy of this scarce title; this appears to be its first appearance at auction.