Roll, Jordan, Roll by Ullman and Peterkin, First Edition

Roll, Jordan, Roll by Doris Ullman and Julia Peterkin

First Edition, Second Printing, 1934

This is a very scarce first edition, second printing of the highly acclaimed, “Roll, Jordan, Roll” published by Robert O. Ballou, New York in 1934. The first printing was issued in 1933 by Robert O. Ballou and is identical to the second printing with the exception of the frontispiece which shows a woman in the first printing and a man in the second printing. Both editions were preceded by a deluxe edition of 350 signed copies. Recent copies of this edition routinely sell in the $50,000+ price range. Writing in The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, Vince Aletti wrote, “"Ulmann's photographic collaboration with Julia Peterkin focuses on the lives of former slaves and their descendants on a plantation in the Gullah coastal region of South Carolina. Peterkin, a popular novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929, was born in South Carolina and raised by a black nursemaid who taught her the Gullah dialect before she learned standard English. She married the heir to Lang Syne, one of the state's richest plantations, which became the setting for Roll, Jordan, Roll. Ulmann's soft-focus photos-rendered as tactile as charcoal drawings in the superb gravure reproductions here-straddle Pictorialism and Modernism even as they appear to dissolve into memory".

Containing 70 single page black and white photogravures and measuring approximately 9” x 6”, the book is bound in blue cloth covered boards in a photographically illustrated dust jacket. The condition of the book is FINE- with the previous owners name written in pencil. The dust jacket is not price clipped and is in Near Fine condition with some professionally repaired taped edge tears. The dust jacket is protected with a mylar jacket. Overall, this is an exceptional copy of an important photobook that is very scarce in this condition.

Cited in “The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century” by Andrew Roth

Photographs of the dust and some of the photographs contained in the book appear below. Please note that although the photographs appear digitized as thumbnails, they are viewable in the photo viewer by running your mouse over the thumbnail. You can also click on the thumbnail to open a separate window where the picture is viewable.