Freedom's Plow [Two Copies] [Signed by Hughes and W. C. Handy]

New York: Musette Publishers. Very Good. 1943. First Edition. Paperback. 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 14 pages; [Signed by Hughes and W. C. Handy] 1943 Musette Publishers, New York. 1Ofst edition, thus. Fered as a lot are three items, including two copies of Langston Hughes' single volume long poem, "Freedom's Plow." One of the copies is signed by both Langston Hughes and W. C. Handy on the rear cover. Handy has dated his signature 11-6-44. As found, both copies were laid in at the front of James Weldon Johnson's "Book of American Negro Poetry" published by Harcourt Brace with a printing date of 1944. The book and one of the copies of Freedom's Plow bear the ownership signature of Marjorie J. Wilkins; her papers are held in the Special Collections Library at the University of Minnesota (Identifier: U6267) . Wilkins was a civil rights and community activist and leader in Duluth, Minnesota, the first African American student and graduate at Duluth's Villa Scholastica Nursing School and the first African American Nurse Anesthetist at St Luke's Hospital in Duluth. She went on to champion causes of racial equity in education and served as president of the Duluth NAACP. Prior to her entry into Nursing School and around the date of the publication of Hardy's dated signature, Wilkins was about 21 or 22 years of age and working in a Boeing Defense Plant in Seattle. Notably there is a difference in the size of these two copies of Freedom's Plow. The copy with with Wilkins' ownership is 21.5 x 14 cm while the copy with Hughes' and Handy's signatures is 19.5 x 13.25 cm. I presume the larger copy to be the earlier printed issue, probably purchased by Wilkins around the time of publication, and the smaller signed copy likely purchased by Wilkins for the 10 cents Hughes generally charged at his appearances. Hughes and Handy shared in "headlining" performances in St Louis that year at the July  10,1944 war-time Negro Music Festival, Sportsman’s Park, St Louis. Possibly that sort of special war-time African American Revue was repeated in a more scaled down manner in other cities such as Seattle later that year. Neither of the signatures is inscribed. One imagines the young Ms Wilkins found time to approach her inspirational figures and with presumably a pithy exchange of solidarity and hope, obtained their signatures. Both copies of the standalone poem are in cream paper covers lettered in blue and with a single saddle staple binding the cover and pages. The larger copy has outline toning to the top and front edges of the cover and foxing along the top edge. A short closed edge tear top edge of the cover and contents  and a small chip from the top edge of the rear cover. The scaled down smaller copy with Hughes and Handy's signatures has a mild stress crease top corner but generally bright and fresh.   "Freedom's Plow" was the longest poem in Hughes oeuvre and was written with inspiration from African American spirituals and with reference to the words of America's founders in the Declaration of Independence as an inspirational challenge for racial equity and equality in view the shared fight against the totalitarian and anti-democratic foes of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.   The poem was read on radio March 15, 1943 by Paul Muni and later editions of the poem were accompanied by a recording of that reading. Offered here together with signature of the hugely influential "Father of the Blues " Handy, accompanying that of Langston Hughes and in a grouping that preserves the unusual associational provenance. Overall VG .