A first edition, first issue, of this important work preserving the oral tales of African-American slaves. Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), a white Southern newspaperman, grew up on a Georgia plantation and heard many of the stories as he wrote them here in his first of several books. They romanticise plantation life, and perpetuate racist stereotypes, but remain a vital record of African-American culture. Most of the tales are of talking animals, such as Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, and follow their fable origins by being metaphoric embodiments of certain notions or tribulations.

First edition, first issue, with "presumptive" in page 9 and the ads not mentioning this work; 8vo (19.5 x 13.5 cm); 8 woodcut plates, including frontispiece, and in-text illustrations by Frederick S. Church and James M. Moser, bookplates to pastedowns, a few marginal tears neatly repaired, upper hinge and gatherings a little shaken but holding; publisher's gilt pictorial cloth, a little rubbed, otherwise a very good copy; 231, [1], [8]pp.