WHEATLEY, PHILLIS

(London): (A. Bell, Bookseller, Aldgate; and Sold by Messrs. Cox and Berry, King-Street, Boston), (1773). [v-viii], [9]-124, [4] pp. 12mo, modern full red morocco, gilt titles to spine in compartments. First edition of the first literary work ever published by an African-American. Around 1760, (1761 according to her master's note), Phillis Wheatley, then only seven years old, was captured in Senegal and sold as a slave to John and Susannah Wheatley of Boston. The Wheatley's saw to it that Phillis received a good education and, at the age of 13, her command of the English language was strong enough to publish her first poem. Skeptical that readers would believe the poetry to be that of a young slave girl, she appeared before a group of "the most respectable Characters in Boston" -- including John Hancock and James Pitts -- all of whom signed their names in official attestation that Wheatley truly did write the poems. Even so, no local publisher would assume the task, so Phillis and her master's son traveled to London and procured a publisher with the assistance of the Earl of Dartmouth and the Countess of Huntington (to whom the collection is dedicated). Despite her unprecedented accomplishment, Wheatley died a poor woman at the age of 31 while giving birth to her third child. Lacking first two leaves (i-vii), including portrait frontispiece and title page; dedication page and preface encapsulated in old thick glassine; otherwise fine.