Last of the Conquerors

Author: William Gardner Smith (1924-1974)

Year: 1948

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Company

Place: New York

Description:

262 pages. Octavo (8" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's grey cloth-covered boards with red lettering to spine, in original jacket. From the libraries of Dr W. Edward Farrison and Dr. Patsy Perry, both former English professors at North Carolina Central University in Durham with their signatures. (Whiteman p. 43) First edition with FS colophon on copyright and no additional printings indicated.

William Gardner Smith was an American journalist, novelist, and editor. Smith is linked to the black social protest novel tradition of the 1940s and the 1950s, a movement that became synonymous with writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Willard Motley, and Ann Petry.

Last of the Conquerors is the 1948 debut novel by African-American journalist and editor William Gardner Smith. The novel concerns the author's experience as an African-American GI serving in the racially segregated United States Army in US-occupied Germany after World War II. The protagonist, Hayes Dawkins, has an affair with Ilse, a white German woman. He and Ilse struggle against racist Army officers and policies to sustain a relationship that some white soldiers condemn (although there are also many friendly whites who help them).

Dr. W. Edward Farrison ((1902-1985) and Dr. Patsy Brewington Perry (1933-2021) were professors of English at North Carolina Central University in Durham.

Condition:

Dr. W. Edward Farrison and Dr. Patsy Perry signed on the front paste-down. Boards with bumped corners and one light mark to lower board, spine very mildly sunned with typical handling wear at ends, slight separation from text block at head; minor stains at fore-edge, interior lightly toned with clean, unmarked pages; Jacket unclipped ($2.75) with toning, scuffs, damp staining at spine, and significant edgewear with chips and tears, spine sunned else very good in a good jacket.