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SHIELDS, Anna.  THREE VOLUMES OF POETRY: PASSION WEEK, UNPOLISHED TRUTHS, & ETHIOPIA'S PETITION. Cambridge, MA: [n.p.] 1918-1924. First editions.

UNPOLISHED TRUTHS: A SELECTION OF POEMS. Cambridge, MA: The Author [n.d. ca. 1920]. First edition. 28 pp. 16mo., red stiff wrappers printed in black. Ink ownership to title page, externally near fine with tiny chip to top of spine. Ad on rear cover for The Ideal Press, North Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rare.

Very little is known of Anna Shields (Mrs.), though Cambridge was the home to one of the oldest African American communities in the nation and has long attracted African Americans of national prominence and influence. Twenty historic plaques across the city honor notable African American residents who were abolitionists, authors, educators, and office holders in Cambridge from 1840 to 1940. (We assume she was an African American poet.) We can find nothing in the Boston Business Directories listing the Ideal Press, though a business with the same name was active in Philadelphia in 1923. The three: SOLD
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