Dark Testament (First Edition, 1942)

London: George Allen & Unwin, 1942

12mo, 160pp. Hardcover binding with black lettering to spine.

First edition, published 1942.

Peter Henry Abrahams Deras (1919 – 2017), commonly known as Peter Abrahams, was a South African-born novelist, journalist and political commentator who in 1956 settled in Jamaica, where he lived for the rest of his life. His death at the age of 97 is considered to have been murder. In 1939, Abrahams left South Africa, and worked first as a sailor, and then settled in London, where he was a journalist. Despite a manuscript reader's recommendation against publication, in 1942 Allen & Unwin brought out Dark Testament, made up mostly of pieces he had carried with him from South Africa.

Abrahams is one of South Africa's most prominent writers, his works dealing with political and social issues, especially with racism. His novel Mine Boy (1946), one of the first works to bring him to critical attention, and his memoir Tell Freedom (1954) deal in part with apartheid. His other works include the story collection Dark Testament (1942) and the novels The Path of Thunder (1948, which inspired both a ballet of the same name and the opera Reiter der Nacht by Ernst Hermann Meyer), A Wreath for Udomo (1956), A Night of Their Own (1965), the Jamaica-set This Island Now (1966, the only one of his novels not set in Africa) and The View from Coyaba (1985). His memoir The Coyaba Chronicles was published in 2000. (wikipedia.com)

Condition: Good. Light rubbing to boards, section of sunning to rear board. Sunning to spine. Spot of wear to top corner of front board. Small crease to bottom corner of p. 113/114. Light splitting to gutters between a couple of pages. Stain to top edge of textblock, light foxing to fore edge of textblock. Text clean. Still well bound.