STRANGE FRUIT (1944) by Lillian Eugenia Smith / 1st Edition, 6th Printing / Hardcover [NOVEL]

Strange Fruit
by Lillian Eugenia Smith

Octavo (20cm.) Reynal & Hitchcock, 1944. Sixth Printing.. Hardcover. 371 pages. Dark blue cloth-covered boards, titled in yellow on cover, yellow and white on the spine. Spine ends are pushed, mild rubbing to lower edge of boards, VERY GOOD+. The dustjacket is unclipped (priced $2.75) with chipping to the spine ends. VERY GOOD.  Protected in mylar sleeve.

Strange Fruit is a 1944 bestselling novel debut by American author Lillian Smith that deals with the then-forbidden and controversial theme of interracial romance. In her autobiography, singer Billie Holiday wrote that Smith chose to name the book after her song "Strange Fruit", which was about the lynching and racism against African Americans. Smith maintained the book's title referred to the damaged, twisted people (both black and white) who are the products or results of our racist culture. After the book's release, the book was banned in Boston and Detroit for "lewdness" and crude language. Strange Fruit was also banned from being mailed through the U.S. Postal Service until President Franklin D. Roosevelt interceded at his wife Eleanor's request