Black Boy

When Black Boy exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, it was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the New York Times 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, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for "obscenity" and "instigating hatred between the races." Wright''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 Black Boy , Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to "hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo." Seventy-five year later, his words continue to reverberate. One 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.

Product details

• Authors: Richard Wright
• Assisted by: John Edgar Wideman (Foreword), Malcolm Wright (Afterword)
• Publisher: Harper Perennial USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.09.2025
• EAN: 9780063458345
• ISBN: 978-0-06-345834-5
• No. of pages: 512
• Dimensions: 114 mm x 181 mm x 33 mm
• Series: Harper Perennial Olive Editions
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945); Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > Education > Social education, social work; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Ethnic Studies, Biography: general, Africa, Psychology, Memoirs, Indigenous Peoples, Social Work, History of Religion, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, Religion and Politics, Law: Human rights and civil liberties, Relating to Native American people, Slavery and abolition of slavery, Social groups: religious groups and communities, HISTORY: Social History, RELIGION: History, FIRST YEAR EXPERIENCE: FICTION, HISTORY: North America, PSYCHOLOGY: Mental Health, AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES: MEMOIR & BIOGRAPHY, RELIGION: Religion, Politics & State, SOCIAL SCIENCE: Sociology of Religion, HISTORY: Africa / North, SOCIAL SCIENCE: Discrimination, SOCIAL SCIENCE: Slavery, SOCIAL SCIENCE: Social Work, LAW: Civil Rights, Social discrimination and social justice, Relating to African American / Black American people, Relating to people of the African diasporas / heritage, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Memoirs, SOCIAL SCIENCE: Native American Studies, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: African American & Black, SOCIAL SCIENCE: Cultural & Ethnic Studies / African Studies, First Year Experience / Fiction, African American Studies / Memoir & Biography