200.
1929
Jan. 7
An Autumn Love Cycle
Georgia Douglas Johnson[i]
Harold Vinal Co.
Poems
Phila.
Jan. 24
The White Girl
Vera Caspary
Sears & Co.
Novel
Another “Flight” affair.
Wilm. Del.
Jan. 27
Lily Christine
Michael Arlen
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Novel
New York
Feb. 4
Mamba’s Daughters
Du Bose Heyward
The Literary Guild Selection for Feb.
Novel. The best “Race” novel yet.
Wilm. Del.
201.
1929
Feb. 5
The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science: The American Negro
Edited by Donald Young, Ph.D.
Phila. Pa.
Feb. 14
Joseph and His Brethren
H. W. Freeman
Novel – after the Thomas Hardy style. The farm is the protagonist
Henry Holt Co.
On train between Balti. and W’ton.
Feb. 16
The Blacker the Berry
Wallace Thurman
Macaulay (Pub)
One of “those” race novels. Why
On train between N.Y. & W’ton.
Feb. 21
Dark Laughter
Sherwood Anderson
Grosset & Dunlap
Novel
On train between Plainfield, N.J. & Phila.
202.
Feb. 24
The Magic Island
W. B. Seabrook
The Literary Guild.
Narrative of Haiti – all Voodoo, the social life, all. Masterfully done.
Wilmington, Del.
Feb. 25
Nigger to Nigger
Dr. C. E. Adams
Satire under the guise of folk tales. Better
Scribner’s Sons.
On train between Glenside & Phila.
March 18
The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg
Louis Bromfield
Strange & mysterious novel – like Hawthorne’s Marble Faun
Fred A. Stokes
Wilm. Del.
March 21
Black Sadie
T. Bowyer Campbell
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Another rotten Negro novel
On train bet. Phila. & W’ton
203.
March 29
Black America
Scott Nearing
The Vanguard Press
Sociological Study – well done
Phila. Pa.
March 31
Plum Bun
Jessie Redmond Fauset
Fred A. Stokes
A “Race” novel
Wilm. Del.
April 11
The Pedro Gornio
Henry Dean
Travel & Adventure
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Philadelphia, Pa.
April 14
Passing
Nella Larsen
Another of “those” novels
Alfred A. Knopf
Wilm. Del.
204.
May 11
The Central Park Murder
Beldon Duff
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Crime Club Book
On train between Phila. & Wilberforce
May 18
Black Magic
Paul Morand
Trans. by Hamish Miles
The Viking Press
More voodoo stuff from Baton Rouge to the Sudan.
Wilm. Del.
May 19
Molinoff; or the Count in the Kitchen
Maurice Bedel
Trans. from the French by Maurice Bedel[ii]
[sic] An amusing – tho pathetic – divertissement
The Viking Press
Wilm. Del.
205.
May 20
Cradle of the Deep
Joan Lowell
Simon Schuster
Good, rattling yarn. Maybe apocryphal, but snappy.
Wilm. Del.
June 10
Banjo
Claude Mackay
Not a novel – A study, severe perhaps but good points.
Harper
Phila. Pa.
June 17
Dark Hester
Anne Douglass Sedgwick
Novel
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Wilm. Del.
June 22
The Well of Loneliness
Radcliffe Hall
Introd. By Havelock Ellis
Covici, Freide Publishers
Surely the strangest & most beautiful book ever written. The tragic story of inverts. Horribly beautiful.
Wilm. Del.
206.
1929
July 3
Peder Victorious
O. E. Rolvaag
Trans. from Norwegian by Nora O. Solum
Harper Bros.
Novel
Highland Beach, Maryland
July 15
Hello Towns!
Sherwood Anderson
Horace Liveright
Journalism, philosophy, what you will
Highland Beach, Maryland
July 18
The Flutes of Shanghai
Louise Jordan Miln
Frederick A. Stokes Co.
Chinese novel – or novel of China
Highland Beach, Maryland
July 24
Dark Star
Lorna Moon
Bobbs-Merrill Co.
Novel
Highland Beach, Md.
207.
1929
July 28
The Greene Murder Case
S. S. Van Dine
Detective Novel
Scribner’s
Wilm. Del.
Aug. 4
The Bishop Murder Case
Detective Novel
Scribner’s
Wilm. Del.
Aug. 5
Penelope’s Man
John Erskine
Bobbs-Merrill –
Another one of those classics done into modern novel form. The Odyssey from a back-stairs view.
Wilm. Del.
206.
Aug. 7, 1929
Moses
Louis Untermeyer
Exodus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy rationalized – by a Jew
Novel
Harcourt, Brace & Howe
Wilm. Del.
207.
Aug. 11, 1929
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erik Maria Romarque
Trans. from the German by A. W. Wheen
Little, Brown & Co.
[sic] The world’s best seller.
“The generation of men, who even tho they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the War.” Pub. in June 1929, now already
185,000 in America
155,000 “ ”
185,000 “ France—
30,000 per week in Germany since January and Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Spain, Czecho-slovakia, Poland, Italy.
Aug. 11, 1929
But Gentleman Mary Brunettes
Anita Loos
Novel – Sequel to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Boni & Liverights
Wilm. Del.
Aug. 14, 1929
What the Negro Thinks
Robert Russa Moton
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Essay. “Best thing that ever came out of Tuskegee.”
On train bet. Phila. & W’ton.
Aug. 18, 1929
Fish Preferred
P. G. Wodehouse
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
Novel.
Wilm. Del.
208.
Sept. 5, 1929
The Doctor Who Held Hands
Hulbert Footner
Doubleday, Doran & Co.
A Crime Club Publication – Detective Novel
Wilmington, Del.
Sept. 6, 1929
Kept
Viña Delmar
Serial – Liberty Magazine
Novel
Train bet – Phila. & W’ton
Sept. 9, 1929
Glorious Apollo
E. Barrington
Novel on life of Byron
Dodd, Mead & Co.
Phila. Pa.
Sept. 12, 1929
The Dark Journey
Julien Greene
Trans. from French by Vyvyan Holland
Harper Bros.
Horrible!
Phila. Pa.
209.
Sept. 20, 1929
Show Girl
J. P. McEvoy
Novel Serial – Liberty Magazine
Train bet. Phila. & W’ton.
Sept. 23
The Tree Named John
John B. Sale
Univ. of Carolina Press.
Mutation of Uncle Remus.
Phila. Pa.
Sept. 23
When We Were Very Young
A. A. Milne
Verses (Delightful)
E. P. Dutton
Phila. Pa.
Sept. 23
Now We Are Six
A. A. Milne
Verses
E. P. Dutton
Phila. Pa.
210.
Sept. 23, 1929
Wings on my Feet
Howard Odum
“Black Ulysses goes to War” Narrative
Bobbs-Merrill Co.
Wilm. Del.
Sept. 24
The Old Ladies
Hugh Walpole
Grosset & Dunlap
Novel: Terrible, Grim
Wilm. Del.
Sept. 26
Temple Tower
H. C. McNeile
The Crime Club
Mystery or Crime novel
Phila. Pa.
Sept. 30
Whiteoaks of Jalna
Marzo de la Roche
Little, Brown & Co.
Novel. Sequel to Jalna
Wilm. Del.
211.
Oct. 3, 1929
The Captain’s Daughter
Alexander Pushkin
Trans. from the Russian by Natalie Duddington
The Viking Press
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 6, 1929
Some Visitors from Mars
W. Clyde King[iii]
Serial Novel (after Wells War of the Worlds) Delmarva Star
Wilmington
Oct. 10, 1929
The Golden Wind
Takashi Ohta & Margaret Sperry
[sic] Rhapsodical novel of arresting beauty
Chas. Boni (Paper Books)
Wilm. Del.
Oct. 15
Little Caesar
W. R. Burrnette
Literary Guild
Gangster Novel
Wilm. Del.
212.
Oct. 18, 1929
The Mark of the Rat
Arnold Fredericks
Detective Novel – J. H. Sears & Co.
Wilm. Del.
Nov. 18, 1929
Up Stream
Ludwig Lewisohn
Modern Library
Autobiography
Phila. Pa.
Nov. 25, 1929
Frederick the Great
Margaret Goldsmith
Chas. Boni – Paper Books
Biography
Train bet. Phila. & W’ton.
Dec. 13, 1929
Twelve Tests of Character
Henry Emerson Fosdick
Essay
Doubleday Doran & Co.
Phila. Pa.
213.
Dec. 15, 1929
The Methodist Faun
Anne Parrish
Harper’s
Novel
Wilmington, Del.
Dec. 31
Dewer Rides
L. A. G. Strong
Chas. Boni – Paper Books
Novel
On train bet. Pittsburgh & Wilmington
Dec. 23
French Fairy Tales
P. F. Volland [publisher]
Phila. Pa.
Dec. 10
The Confessions of a Negro Preacher
Anon.[iv]
Canterbury Press
Autobiography
Chicago, Ill.
Recapitulation
Novels 39
Short Stories 1 + 1
Poems 3
Essays 6
Drama 0
History 1
Biography 2 + 1
Travel 1
Narrative 4
57
2
59
Notes
[i] This author was one of Dunbar-Nelson’s longtime friends.
[ii] The translator was actually Lawrence S. Morris not Maurice Bedel.
[iii] W. Clyde Young.
[iv] Later attributed to Tennessean author Opie Percival Read who was not, in fact, an African American. Regrettably, Dunbar-Nelson does not seem to have any knowledge of this important piece of information.
