A memoir and original poetry by one of America's first Black physicians and the brother of an Underground Railroad founder, accompanied by manuscript material documenting a woman's attempt to place the book with an HBCU

[BIPOC] [Black Excellence] Still, Dr. James

Early Recollections and Life of Dr. James Still (with accompanying archival material)

[Philadelphia]: Printed for the Author by J. B. Lippincott & Co, 1877. First Edition. Original publisher's cloth binding with gilt to spine. Brown coated endpapers. Measuring 182 x 115mm and collating complete including frontis: [2], 274. A VG+ copy with some staining to boards and wear to extremities. Front hinge cracked but holding with some webbing visible; rear hinge tender. Early ownership signature of Mrs. C. C. Irons of Toms River, NJ to front endpaper. Internally with a bit of toning and offsetting to preliminary leaves and occasional marginal finger soiling, otherwise unmarked. Loosely inserted at front are four notecards documenting Mrs. Shirley B. Pray's attempts in the 1980s to research and place this copy of Early Recollections with a university or historically Black college, a 1987 newsclipping opinion column regarding racism in Chicago communities, and a transmittal envelope. The most recent copy at auction appeared nearly a decade ago and, of the four copies to sell at auction in the past 40 years, two have been restored; all 25 copies listed in OCLC are held in East Coast libraries (2 in Connecticut, 11 in New Jersey, 4 in New York, and 6 in Pennsylvania). The present is the only example in trade.

"'It was my lot in life to be debarred from the advantages of education." From his memoir's outset, James Still is forthright about his minimal formal training. Relied upon by his large family for financial assistance, he "received three months' instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic which completed me to start out in life." Yet Still's interest in healing and his drive for learning pushed him forward to the historical role he would play as "the most gifted physician in South Jersey...an African American, the son of former slaves...who was self taught in both medical knowledge and practice...Dr. Still overcame poverty and racial animus to become one of the wealthiest men in South Jersey during his lifetime" (Stockton University). Still's memoir Early Recollections and Life documents his story, stretching from childhood until his well-established professional adulthood; and the book preserves Still's call for empathy and curiosity, and his encouragement that those with privilege assist rather than disdain those without access to education. "I only think it strange that educated men, who have been so fortunate, should treat their more unfortunate fellows with such contempt."

Still's autobiography is an important account not only of one man's perseverance, but also of the type of training he was able to access in growing his experience as a medical practitioner. Beyond this, the original poetry contained at the rear of the volume reveals that the body was not Still's sole focus in regards to healing. The mind and heart were also of concern, and his work The Bereaved Family emphasizes the limits of medicine in saving lives (as well as the difficulty of losing patients) while The Other Land imagines a more peaceful and equal world where Black folks can find rest.

Notably, Dr. James Still was not the only of his siblings to gain notoriety as his younger brother William Still was a famed abolitionist, author, and founder of the Underground Railroad. (112)