First printing of the author's scarce second book, one of only 500 copies published. Brown cloth, stamped in gilt, with brown floral-design endpapers. Light soiling to covers include a thumb-sized stain on the lower front cover. Hinges tight and book actually in better condition than normally encountered, pages 87-90 are tightly bound but protrude very slightly from the rest of the textblock. 

Paul Laurence Dunbar, son of fugitives from slavery, was known for his colorful use of language and dialect and is considered as America's first major African-American poet.  This is Dunbar's second book. Poorly produced, and printed cheaply, the publishers misspelled the author's middle name as "Lawrence" on both the cover and the title page.