A Raisin In the Sun.

First edition of this groundbreaking play, the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Octavo, original half cloth. From the library of James Baldwin with his signature to the front free endpaper. Hansberry moved to Harlem in 1951 where she joined the staff of the African American journal Freedom Newspaper and worked on stories not only related to the Civil Rights Movement, but global struggles against colonialism and imperialism. It was during the period in which she conceived of A Raisin in the Sun that she also became involved in the emerging gay rights movement, of which James Baldwin had become the leading literary voice. In 1963, Baldwin was invited to the Manhattan apartment of Robert F. Kennedy to discuss the current state of race relations in the United States. In addition to several other prominent figures in the Civil Rights Movement including Kenneth Clark and Clarence Benjamin Jones, Baldwin invited Hansberry who had become an important voice in the movement. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Stan Phillips and Mel Williamson. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.