Lot 260: Inscribed copy of Cable's The Negro Question

CABLE, GEORGE W.

The Negro Question. New York: Scribners, 1890. First edition, signed and inscribed by Cable to Frederick H. Hitchcock, 1891. Publisher's red cloth lettered in red. 7 1/8 x 4 3/4 inches (18 x 12 cm); vi, [1], [1]–173 pp. Minor wear to spine ends, spine slightly faded, in all a sound, clean copy.

The New Orleans author George W. Cable was a friend of Mark Twain, who praised him highly. Late in his career, he turned from writing popular novels (Old Creole Days, Madame Delphine, and The Grandissimes) to impassioned works of social reform such as the present. These made him persona non grata in the South; at the time this was published, he was living in Northampton, Mass. “[H]is best-known writings from this period are The Silent South (1885) and The Negro Question (1890), which served only to alienate further the southerners who had once been his most ardent supporters…” (ANB)