{"product_id":"black-boy-seventy-fifth-anniversary-edition-richard-wright-9780062964137","title":"Black Boy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Superb. . . . A great American writer speaks with his own voice about matters that still resonate at the center of our lives.\" --\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA striking new edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author's grandson.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, \u003cem\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/em\u003e was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e wrote that \"if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy.\" Yet from 1975 to 1978, \u003cem\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/em\u003e was banned in schools throughout the United States for \"obscenity\" and \"instigating hatred between the races.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWright's once controversial, now celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse, and hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole, and raged at those around him--whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and blacks resentful of anyone trying to rise above their circumstances. Desperate for a different way of life, he may his way north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he forged a new path and began his career as a writer. At the end of \u003cem\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/em\u003e, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to \"hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo.\" More than seventy-five year later, his words continue to reverberate. \"To read \u003cem\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/em\u003e is to stare into the heart of darkness,\" John Edgar Wideman writes in his foreword. \"Not the dark heart Conrad searched for in Congo jungles but the beating heart I bear.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the great American memoirs, Wright's account is a poignant record of struggle and endurance--a seminal literary work that illuminates our own time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Richard Wright\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0062964135\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780062964137\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harper Perennial\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/10\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 464\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.76lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.30w x 1.10d","brand":"Richard Wright","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44053232779519,"sku":"9780062964137","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5b22a1b9-2e63-45d4-abd5-e5da7bfc706f.jpg?v=1685023185","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/black-boy-seventy-fifth-anniversary-edition-richard-wright-9780062964137","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}