Rare and collectible books

Rare and Collectible Books
Rooted in Black History and Culture

Discover individual books researched, photographed and described by Akoma. Every listing identifies the exact physical copy, what we know, what remains uncertain and why the book matters.

Books with History. Stories Worth Preserving.Collect · Preserve · ValueOne book · One record · One history
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Books with History.
Stories Worth Preserving.

5 books shown · search begins at launch
Complete three-volume set of The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Oxford University Press, shown upright with gold-lettered spines.
One complete set available

The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Alice Dunbar-Nelson · Edited by Gloria T. Hull
1988 first printing · Pocket-size hardcover set · AKOMA-RB-0044

The complete matched Oxford three-volume set, with documented provenance through the Janice Taheera Harper Collection and Adelaide E. Simms.

$295
Front cover of Black Soldiers, Black Sailors, Black Ink
One copy available

Black Soldiers, Black Sailors, Black Ink

Thomas Truxtun Moebs
1994 · Hardcover · AK-RB-0001

A privately printed work documenting Black military service through original research and archival evidence.

$500
Front covers of Collected Black Women’s Poetry, Volumes 1–4, edited by Joan R. Sherman.
One complete set available

Collected Black Women’s Poetry, Volumes 1–4

Edited by Joan R. Sherman · General Editor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
1988 first printings · Pocket-size hardcover set · AKOMA-RB-0032

The complete matched Oxford four-volume set, with documented provenance through the Janice Taheera Harper Collection and Adelaide E. Simms.

$375
Front cover of Great African Thinkers, Volume 1
One copy available

Great African Thinkers, Vol. 1

Edited by Ivan Van Sertima
1986 · Softcover · AKOMA-CB-0082

The first volume in a landmark series centering Cheikh Anta Diop and African-centered intellectual history.

$95
Front cover of Great Black Leaders: Ancient and Modern
One copy available

Great Black Leaders: Ancient and Modern

Edited by Ivan Van Sertima
1988 · Softcover · AKOMA-RB-0030

Essays examining Black leadership across the United States, Africa and the ancient world.

$45
Front cover of Black Boy by Richard Wright
One copy available

Black Boy

Richard Wright · Foreword by Edward Aswell
1945 · Hardcover · AKOMA-RB-0031

A first-edition, first-printing copy with fragmentary dust-jacket remains preserved and documented separately.

$150
Front cover of Forward to Freedom, an African National Congress exile-era pamphlet
One copy available

Forward to Freedom

African National Congress of South Africa
Undated [1971] · Softcover · AKOMA-RB-0028

An original ANC exile-era pamphlet preserving the movement’s strategy and political programme following the historic Morogoro Conference.

$60
Front cover of the September 1970 First Vintage Books edition of Seize the Time by Bobby Seale, showing age toning and cover wear.
One copy available

Seize the Time

Bobby Seale · Edited by Art Goldberg
September 1970 · Pocket-size paperback (12mo) · AKOMA-RB-0012

Bobby Seale’s firsthand account of the Black Panther Party, preserved in the First Vintage Books edition.

$95
Front cover of the 1971 first edition of Raise Race Rays Raze by Imamu Amiri Baraka, showing the worn original orange dust jacket.
One copy available

Raise Race Rays Raze

Imamu Amiri Baraka · also identified as LeRoi Jones
1971 stated first edition · Hardcover · AKOMA-RB-0004

Essays from a decisive period in Baraka’s political, cultural and artistic development, with documented scholarly provenance.

$225
Front cover of the 1996 hardcover Catalogue of the Barnett-Aden Collection, showing burgundy binding and silver lettering.
One copy available

The Catalogue of the Barnett-Aden Collection

Museum of African American Art and Florida Education Fund
1996 · Hardcover in original matching slipcase · AKOMA-CB-0118

A carefully preserved catalog documenting a major African American art legacy, complete in its original matching slipcase.

$85
Front cover of the signed 1991 first edition of Tommy Traveler in the World of Black History by Tom Feelings.
One copy available

Tommy Traveler in the World of Black History

Written and illustrated by Tom Feelings
1991 signed first edition · Oblong hardcover · 42 pages · AKOMA-RB-0043

A children’s graphic novel that introduces African American history through vivid illustrated journeys. Signed and inscribed by Tom Feelings.

$125
Front cover of the 1966 Oxford first English edition of Tales of Amadou Koumba by Birago Diop.
One copy available

Tales of Amadou Koumba

Birago Diop · Translated by Dorothy S. Blair
1966 first English edition · Pictorial hardcover · 134 pages · AKOMA-RB-0014

A landmark collection of Senegalese and Wolof oral storytelling in the first English edition.

$85
Front cover of Afro-American Voices, 1770’s–1970’s.
One copy available

Afro-American Voices, 1770’s–1970’s

Compiled by Ralph Kendricks and Claudette Levitt
1970 first edition, first printing · Softcover · xiv, 349 pages · AKOMA-RB-0119

A two-century anthology connecting African oral traditions, abolitionist testimony, Black political thought, poetry, fiction and drama.

$65
Front cover of The Black Image in the White Mind by George M. Fredrickson.
One copy available

The Black Image in the White Mind

George M. Fredrickson
1971 first edition · Hardcover in dust jacket · Dr. Leonard A. James, Ed.D. Family Collection · AKOMA-RB-0120

A landmark history of how white American thinkers constructed ideas about Black character, citizenship and destiny.

$55
Front cover of the 1985 second printing of Black Women in Antiquity, edited by Ivan Van Sertima.
One copy available

Black Women in Antiquity

Edited by Ivan Van Sertima
1985 second printing · 189-page early state · Softcover · AKOMA-RB-0042

An African-centered study placing Black women within the histories of ancient African civilizations.

$45
Front cover of the 1972 first printing of Nommo, edited by William H. Robinson.
One copy available

Nommo

Edited by William H. Robinson
1972 first printing · Large trade paperback · 501 pages · AKOMA-RB-0018

A wide-ranging anthology connecting modern Black African and Black American literature.

$45
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Our cataloging practice

One physical copy. One permanent record.

Research, images, condition, provenance, pricing and approvals remain connected to the book’s unique Akoma catalog number. Sold books remain in the archive as part of the collection’s history.

The book confirms

Edition details, format, pagination, markings and condition begin with direct examination.

Research supports

Specialist and institutional sources are documented without copying another bookseller’s catalog.

Condition stays visible

Book and dust-jacket condition are reported separately, with detail images for material defects.

Uncertainty stays honest

When a fact cannot be verified, the catalog says so rather than inventing certainty.

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