(African American Interest) Burley, Dan. Dan Burley's Original Handbook of Harlem Jazz; illustrations by Melvin Tapley. [New York]: [Dan Burley], (1944). FIRST EDITION. 8vo - 7-9/16" x 5-1/4". Original pictorial orange paper wrappers with titles and decoration printed in black to front wrapper along with the author's copyright ink-stamp as issued; the fragile original wrappers with staining and wear, including a 2" long tear at the foot of the spine with a resulting 5/8" loss of paper there. 158 pp. This important work, featuring an 18 pp. dictionary titled "Jiver's Bible," along with numerous articles and some wonderful translations of famous works into Jive, e.g., Shakespeare's Hamlet and Othello, and Clement C. Moore's Night before Christmas (a personal favorite of mine) --
"Twas the dim before Nicktide, and all through the Crib,
You could hear Joe Hipp spieling that righteous ad lib.
Them leg-sacks were stashed by the smoke-hole, in fact ..." Truly wonderful stuff.
As a reporter for Harlem's Amsterdam News, Dan Burley gained prominence for his two regular columns in the weekly paper -- "Confidentially Yours," a sports column where he advocated for the integration of baseball, and "Back Door Stuff," which covered the Harlem scene and documented the "jive" spoken there. According to Burley, it was Langston Hughes who "insisted" that he compile a handbook of jive and I for one am thankful that he did; internally the book is generally clean throughout; housed in a modern custom red cloth clamshell box with matching chemise. The condition of the book is VERY GOOD -. Only one copy of the 1st edition located on OCLC/WorldCat (Xavier University of Louisiana). EXCEEDINGLY RARE # 001229
Provenance: Charlie Watts Collection - Sold Christies, 15 September 2023, Charlie Watts: Literature and Jazz Part II, Lot 477