An excellent copy of an apparently unrecorded book of poetry by African American veteran, George E. Reid. The eighty poems collected here are augmented by the page long autobiographical note that opens the work, as well as the half-tone portrait.
Published in the heart of Texas in the year after World War II ended, Reid discusses his two favourite poems in his Autobiographical introduction: “O, Dark One” and “If I Could Have My Wish.” The former was “inspired after I had read several editorials in a monthly magazine edited by Mr. Du Bois, in which he was outspoken against peonage, lynching and the general mistreatment of the Negro.” The latter “was inspired from my knowledge of Fairy Tales, plus my desire to convert them into a more helpful realization.” He writes that “the poem tells the story,” which involves Reid becoming a surgeon and solving “the sorrows of the world.” Other poems focus on Mother’s Day, youthful love, happiness, depression, solitude, kindness, his time at the Hampton Institute, and elsewhere.
The last seven poems were written while serving during World War II. Each of them is datelined from either New Guinea or the Philippines on various dates in 1944 or 1945. Even though these poems are largely concerned with matters fo the heart, war poetry by African American soldiers is very rare.
Born in Kentucky in 1906, Reid spent most of his life in Chicago. He worked in the Defence industry before serving almost four years in the military during the Second World War, spending about half of his time in the Pacific Theatre. He trained for combat at Hampton and Tuskegee, ending with Kelly Field in San Antonio where he met his wife.
Surely issued in low numbers for family and friends locally, this isn’t recorded on OCLC. The only reference to it we can find, it the register of copywright on 31 May, 1946.
