“For the cramped bewildered years
we went to school to learn
to know the reasons why
and the answers to and the people who
and the places where and the days when,
in memory of the bitter hours
when we discovered
we were black and poor and small and different
and nobody cared and nobody wondered
and nobody understood . . . “
–For My People by Margaret Walker
Born in 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama, Margaret Walker is one of the most talented poets to come out of the American South and one of the most powerful voices of America. “When she speaks of and for her people, older voices are mixed with hers-the voices of Methodist forebears and preachers who preached the Word, the anonymous voices of many who lived and were forgotten and yet out of bondage and hope made a lasting music,” wrote Stephen Vincent Benet.
To illustrate Margaret Walker’s best‑known poem, For My People, Elizabeth Catlett has created six multi-colored lithographs. Beautiful and striking, Catlett’s images borrow from the African tradition of using form to communicate spirit and purpose.
- One Volume, 18-1/2 x 22-1/2 inches
- Six lithographs by Elizabeth Catlett
- Edition limited to four hundred numbered copies
- Newsletter
- Each signed by Margaret Walker and Elizabeth Catlett
Each of the poem’s ten stanzas was hand‑set in thirty‑point Albertus type, a sans‑serif face that looks as if chiseled from granite. They were letterpress printed on French‑made Arches cover paper, the same paper upon which were printed the Elizabeth Catlett lithographs. The book is bound in imported red Japanese linen over heavy boards, the box is covered in black cotton. 1992. SOLD OUT
“For the boys and girls
who grew in spite of these things . . . “
Title Page
“For My People
walking blindly spreading joy . . .”
“For My People
thronging 47th Street in Chicago
and Lenox Avenue in New York . . . “
“Let a new earth rise,
Let another world be born . . . “
“For my people everywhere
singing their slave songs repeatedly . . . “
Colophon Page
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