African American poets

The first poem published by an African American in North America. Verse of eighty-eight lines; first line: Salvation comes by Jesus Christ alone.

Cover, inscribed: "To Earl Jones--these monologues, sincerely, Langston 1939".

Typescript of a series of seven poems by Langston Hughes, the African American poet and playwright. The title page is inscribed by Hughes to Earl Jones and dated 1939. Robert Earl Jones was an American actor and prizefighter and a figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, having worked with Langston Hughes early in his career.