Last of the Conquerors

$750 · Offered by Book Collector Inc

Author: William Gardner Smith (1924-1974) Year: 1948 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Company Place: New York Description: 262 pages. Octavo (8" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's grey cloth-covered boards with red lettering to spine, in original jacket. From the libraries of Dr W. Edward Farrison and Dr. Patsy Perry, both former English professors at North Carolina Central University in Durham with their signatures. (Whiteman p. 43) First edition with FS colophon on copyright and no additional printings indicated. William Gardner Smith was an American journalist, novelist, and editor. Smith is linked to the black social protest novel tradition of the 1940s and the 1950s, a movement that became synonymous with writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Willard Motley, and Ann Petry. Last of the Conquerors is the 1948 debut novel by African-American journalist and editor William Gardner Smith. The novel concerns the author's experience as an African-American GI serving in the racially segregated United States Army in US-occupied Germany after World War II. The protagonist, Hayes Dawkins, has an affair with Ilse, a white German woman. He and Ilse struggle against racist Army officers and policies to sustain a relationship that some white soldiers condemn (although there are also many friendly whites who help them). Dr. W. Edward Farrison ((1902-1985) and Dr. Patsy Brewington Perry (1933-2021) were professors of English at North Carolina Central University in Durham. Condi

• Binding: Hardcover

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