Volume of poems modeled after traditional African-American religious oratory from the important American writer, educator, and civil rights activist. With a typed letter signed from Johnson to composer John J. Becker tipped to the inside front cover (May 12, 1927; 1 p.), thanking Becker for a letter and mentioning the recent publication of God's Trombones. Gift inscription from John Becker to his wife Evelyn on the front free endpaper, dated Easter 1929. 56 pp. Hardcover, quarter brown cloth with patterned paper boards. No dust jacket. Corners and edges quite rubbed, spine faded; some internal toning. Overall very good. 6.25 x 9 inches (16 x 22.7 cm).

James Weldon Johnson was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and civil rights activist, best remembered for his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. He served as executive secretary of the organization from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novels, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture.