Linton

1975 · réf. 173823 — London: Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications Ltd 1975. First edition of the author's scarce second book written while he was still an undergraduate student at the University of London. Dread Beat and Blood "is perhaps the most important commentary on the condition of Black people in British society which any of our poets have achieved so far" front pastedown. The poems are intended to be read aloud and in 1978 formed the basis for the debut album of the same name by Johnson's band Poet and the Roots. Johnson is a Jamaican-born British-based poet and activist for whom "the kind of thing that I write and the way I say it is a result of the tension between Jamaican Creole and Jamaican English and between those and English English. And all that really is the consequence of having been brought up in a colonial society and then coming here to live and go to school in England soon afterwards. The tension builds up. You can see it in the writing" p. 8. Octavo. Original white wrappers lettered in black front cover lettered in black and red with illustration in black yellow red and green black and white portrait photograph of author on rear cover. Slight damp stain at foot of spine extending a little to faintly marked covers and first few leaves; a very good copy. unknown