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Biography
Jamaican

Bob Marley

1945 — 1981

Jamaican singer, songwriter, and musician who became the global ambassador of reggae music and Rastafari culture. While not a writer in the traditional sense, Marley's lyrics have been published in numerous collected editions, and books about him — biographies, photography collections, and cultural studies — form a substantial collecting category. His early death at thirty-six from melanoma cemented his legend.

Past sales0
PeriodModernist
NationalityJamaican
1. Biography

A short life of the author

Robert Nesta Marley (1945–1981) was born in Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica, to a white English naval officer father and a Black Jamaican mother. He became the most internationally recognised proponent of reggae music, selling over 75 million records worldwide. His albums Catch a Fire (1973), Burnin’ (1973), Natty Dread (1974), Rastaman Vibration (1976), Exodus (1977), and Kaya (1978) fused ska, rocksteady, and reggae with Rastafari spirituality, Pan-Africanist politics, and love songs of startling directness.

Books by and about Marley

Marley did not write prose, but his lyrics have been published in collected form. The primary collecting interest lies in books about him:

  • Timothy White, Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley (1983, Henry Holt) — the definitive biography, written with Marley’s cooperation before his death and revised in subsequent editions.
  • Roger Steffens and Peter Simon, Reggae Scrapbook (2007) — a visual history drawing on Steffens’s enormous archive.
  • Vivien Goldman, The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Album of the Century (2006).
  • Adrian Boot and Chris Salewicz, Bob Marley: Songs of Freedom (1995) — the companion to the box set, with extensive photographs.

Collecting Marley

First editions of Timothy White’s Catch a Fire (1983, Henry Holt) in fine condition with dust jacket bring $100–$300. Signed copies of any Marley-related book are uncommon. The most valuable Marley collectibles are not books but vinyl — original Jamaican pressings on the Tuff Gong, Island, and Wail’n’Soul’m labels, concert posters, and autographed material, which is exceptionally rare given his early death.