NAMING THE NEW WORLD. by Baker, Calvin - (1997)

New York:: St Martin's,, (1997). SIGNED hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket.. First printing. A brief but powerful first novel. In a starred review Publisher's Weekly wrote: "Related by ancestry and by their common story, the African American voices form a turbulent current of racial memory that flows through two continents, three centuries and incalculable terror, suffering and grief. A nameless African progenitor searches for the home of the great tree planted as a seed by his grandfather, and for his name, which he eventually comes to know as River. His story - told in timeless, mythlike language - weaves in and out of the counterpointing narratives of his succeeding generations. Ampofo, a new slave, describes the last hours of his life; Sally, also a slave, tells why she killed Ampofo while he still had the heart of a free man; Tom, the biracial son of a plantation owner, relates the torment of being caught between two races." and onto three generations of more contemporary times. SIGNED on the title page. 118 pp plus a family tree.