Uncle Remus His Songs and His Sayings the Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881. First edition. Near Fine. First printing with "presumptive" on page 9 and the correct ads in the back. (BAL 7100) A lovely, Near Fine copy of the book with bright gilt and clean boards. Light rubbing at the spine ends, minor separation within the page block and a short 1/4 inch tear at the inner margin of the title page. A total of eight plates, including the frontis, with several other illustrations within the text.

First published in 1881, Uncle Remus was a landmark collection of African American fables and oral tradition that was adapted and edited by Joel Chandler Harris. The work includes 185 tales, which are woven together through the character of Uncle Remus, an older formerly enslaved man who tells the stories to a group of children. The stories were actually written in eye dialect and many of them center around the character of Br'er (Brother) Rabbit, a kind of clever trickster. Read widely, the book was extremely popular as many people had not been exposed to the tales, lifestyles, and ways of speaking that the book depicted. Despite its acclaim, the book has become controversial, particularly for its portrayal of Uncle Remus. On both the Grolier Club's and Merle Johnson's lists for most important works of American literature. Near Fine.