SELECTED GEMS OF POETRY, COMEDY AND DRAMA by Gilbert, Mercedes - 1931

Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1931. Very good plus. Signed first edition, inscribed by Gilbert to a theatre critic and referencing her current role in the first Broadway play with an all-Black cast, the Pulitzer Prize-winning GREEN PASTURES. Gilbert was born in Florida and trained as a nurse, but - in a progression rather unusual - she found success as a singer, songwriter, and actress when she failed to find work in medicine. In the 1920s, Gilbert wrote the lyrics for a number of popular songs (like "Decatur Street Blues"), and appeared in silent films (including BODY AND SOUL, where Paul Robeson made his film debut) before landing major roles on Broadway. She firmly established her reputation in the role of Moses's wife Zipporah for the entire five-year run of GREEN PASTURES, in which she was still appearing at the time of this book's publication and inscription. She later played the female lead in Langston Hughes's Broadway play THE MULATTO (after Rose McClendon), and established her One Woman Theatre solo performance in Harlem. Gilbert was a well-known and respected icon of early 20th-century Black theatre that was energized by the Harlem Renaissance, but she also published a number of her original creative works. Before this publication, individual broadsides of her song lyrics had appeared; SELECTED GEMS was the first book-length collection of her short works: poems, sketches, and her play ENVIRONMENT. Scarce on the market, especially so inscribed. 8'' x 5.25''. Original foliage-patterned pink textured cloth lettered in gilt. 89, [1] pages. Inscribed by Gilbert on front free endpaper: "To Mr HE Cherrington of the Columbus Dispatch with best wishes of Mercedes Gilbert 'Zipporah' in The Green Pastures' - 1932 -". Spine lightly sunned, with a bit of soiling to cloth, faint offsetting to endpapers. Interior clean.