The New Cab Calloway’s Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive

Cab Calloway

The New Cab Calloway’s Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive

Privately printed

1944

Bandleader Cab Calloway integrated “jive” into his sets at Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club, one of the few places where white audiences could hear Black music in the 1930s. As “Professor Cab Calloway,” he facetiously lectured delighted audiences by explaining “Harlemese.” Sensing a marketing opportunity, his manager encouraged him to produce this tiny pamphlet defining about 150 jive terms. More jeu d’esprit than a triumph of lexicography, it holds an important place in history: it’s the first dictionary by an African American. 

Ex coll. Jack Lynch. HHD no. 117