Author: ALDEBARAN
Title: Conquest of Coomassie; an Epic of the Mashanti Nation
Description: Los Angeles: Worth While Publishing Company/Coomassie Pulishing Co, California, 1923. First Edition. Hard Cover. Illustrated by Henry M. Brooks. Hard cover is light tan colored with dark brown lettering on front. Overall, pages are clean and tight; stitched binding. Extremely scarce book. Frontispiece is a b/w photograph of the author, 'Aldebaran,' probably a psuedonym. Illustrated with 9, tissued protected b/w drawings. Book is written as poetry, with 5 cantos. On the title page is a sticker, with 'Coomassie Publishing Co, Los Angeles, Calif, U. S. A. ' on it. "Against the glorious background of culture, under the rule "of wisdom, truth, and right," is thrown the pitiful picture of a money-mad world; where the rapacity of Insatiable greed bankrupts the human soul..." in the preface, by George S. Grant. In the introduction is found "...the great United States of West Africa now a British possession, and referred to as 'Ashanti and Ashantee,' is written in the Ochi tongue, M'shanti, and called by themselves, Mashanti, which orthography I shall adhere to, except when quoting other writers..." Ashanti was one of the few African states able to offer serious resistance to European colonizers. Between 1823 and 1896, Britain fought four wars against the Ashanti kings (the Anglo-Ashanti Wars). In 1900, the British finally defeated the kingdom and incorporated it into the Gold Coast colony as a protectorate. The Ashanti comprise ca. 20% of the population of modern Ghana. ; B&W Illustrations; 4 3/4 x 6 1/4; xxiv, 97 pages; Hard cover has rubbing/scuffing, bumping, shelf wear, finger sized, shallow indentation on back cover; some spotting along the spine, gift inscription, tidily written in ink, inside front cover, dated 1935. Owner's name written along gutter, inside back cover, dated 1935. 10 b/w plates with protective tissues. Pages in the introduction have some notes and marks in light purple [probably with a fountain pen].. Very Good .

Keywords: Poetry; African History; Ashanti; Ashantee; Ghana; European Colonial History; European History; Colonial Empires; Artists; Literature/Poetry/Classics Cultural History European History Geography English/British History Biography/Memoirs/Journals World Hist