HUGHES, Langston and DeCARAVA, Roy. The Sweet Flypaper of Life.

(New York): Simon & Schuster, 1955. First edition. Scarce hardcover issue. 18.7 by 13cm. 98 pages. Illustrated throughout with Roy DeCarava’s celebrated black-and-white photographs of Harlem. A landmark photobook and one of the defining collaborations between literature and photography, pairing Hughes’s fictional narrative with DeCarava’s lyrical documentary images. A cornerstone of both African American literature and twentieth-century photographic publishing. Roth 101; Parr & Badger I, p. 242; Auer, The Open Book, p. 160. A very good copy in dust jacket. Jacket with a some loss at the spine head, rubbed along the edges. Laid-in is a two page press release for the Major restrospective exhibition of Roy DeCarava’s photographs at the Witkin Gallery in 1982. This copy signed by DeCarava on the title-page.