Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin (Dell 0637 Vintage Mass-Market Paperback)

Vintage Dell mass-market paperback edition of James Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie, his powerful 1964 play inspired in part by the murder of Emmett Till. Baldwin uses the fictional killing of a young Black man in a Southern town to examine racism, violence, grief, religion, and the moral failures surrounding racial injustice in America.

This is Dell Book 0637, with the striking black cover, bright blue typography, eye motif, 75¢ cover price, and the distinctive green-stained page edges associated with these early Dell editions. The copyright page identifies this copy as the thirteenth Dell printing, March 1974. The first Dell paperback appeared in November 1964. A specialist Baldwin catalogue values the considerably scarcer 1964 first Dell paperback at $50 in Near Fine condition, which gives a useful ceiling/reference point for later printings.