1902 · [Washington DC?]
by [African Americana]. Bowen, John Wesley Edward
[Washington DC?]: Stafford Printing Company, 1902. Good.. 87pp., plus photographic portrait frontispiece. Original red cloth, gilt titles on front cover. Moderate soiling and edge wear, recent expert repair to small areas of spine and bottom edge. Text block evenly toned, recent repairs to inner hinges of endpapers and some leaves. A scarce work authored by John Wesley Edward Bowen (1855-1933), a former slave born in New Orleans who became an accomplished Methodist minister and educator. Bowen was freed from bondage at the tender age of three when his recently-freed father managed to also earn the freedom of his wife and son. Bowen was part of Dillard University's first graduating class in 1878 and completed his formal education with a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1887. He was serving as pastor of the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. when the present work was first published in 1892. He then went on to a professorship at Gammon Theological Seminary and spoke at the "Negro Day" at the Cotton State Exposition in 1895. He later became co-editor of an African-American newspaper, The Voice of the Negro, which endorsed the Niagara Movement in 1905 and achieved a circulation exceeding 10,000 copies. Bowen was severely injured in a race riot in Atlanta in 1908 shortly after becoming President of Gammon. He served as President of Gammon until 1910 and continued to teach there until 1932.
The present work contains an Introduction, Preface, and four chapters titled "What Shall the Harvest Be?," "The Disciplinary Character of Affliction," "What Shall the Harvest Be in the Morals of Our Families?," and "The Duty of the Hour." Though the Preface is dated 1892, the present work is likely the 1902 second edition, numbering eighty-seven pages, expanded from the shorter 1892 edition (printed at Howard University) of just forty pages. The present edition adds an Introduction signed in type, "W.D.G.," as well as a notice on the verso of the title leaf that "This Volume is Dedicated to Gilbert Academy and Agricultural College at Winsted, Louisiana. All Proceeds of Sale are for That Institution." This effort to bring assistance to an African-American educational institution in Louisiana is fitting for Bowen, who was born and received his early education in New Orleans.
Institutional holdings are difficult to discern for this title, since the two editions seem to be comingled with each other and with microfilm and digital copies. The work is exceedingly rare in the trade, and this is the first copy we've heard of or handled. (Inventory #: 6053)
The present work contains an Introduction, Preface, and four chapters titled "What Shall the Harvest Be?," "The Disciplinary Character of Affliction," "What Shall the Harvest Be in the Morals of Our Families?," and "The Duty of the Hour." Though the Preface is dated 1892, the present work is likely the 1902 second edition, numbering eighty-seven pages, expanded from the shorter 1892 edition (printed at Howard University) of just forty pages. The present edition adds an Introduction signed in type, "W.D.G.," as well as a notice on the verso of the title leaf that "This Volume is Dedicated to Gilbert Academy and Agricultural College at Winsted, Louisiana. All Proceeds of Sale are for That Institution." This effort to bring assistance to an African-American educational institution in Louisiana is fitting for Bowen, who was born and received his early education in New Orleans.
Institutional holdings are difficult to discern for this title, since the two editions seem to be comingled with each other and with microfilm and digital copies. The work is exceedingly rare in the trade, and this is the first copy we've heard of or handled. (Inventory #: 6053)
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