The Book of Numbers

Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969. First American edition. Hardcover octavo in green DJ. 374 pages 22 cm Extremely mild rubbing to corners of boards. Mild rubbing to corners and head and foot of spine of DJ. DJ is price clipped to front flap. DJ in archival mylar. Book is fine in very good DJ. . Hardcover.

Abstract: In the hardboiled tradition of Chester Himes and Walter Mosely, Robert Deane Pharr's novel tells the tale of two black men, Dave and Blueboy, traveling waiters who establish themselves as numbers runners in a fictionalized Richmond of the 1930s. Published to great acclaim in 1969, The Book of Numbers centers on powerful themes of truth and illusion, myth and legend, and vividly conveys a sense of African American life on the periphery of white society. African American neighborhoods -- Fiction. African American men. Gambling. Waiters.