{"product_id":"black-boy-isbn-9780062421050","title":"Black Boy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA special 75th\u003cbr\u003eanniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with\u003cbr\u003ea new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the\u003cbr\u003eauthor’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.\u003cbr\u003eOrville Prescott of the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewrote that “if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read\u003cbr\u003ethem maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater\u003cbr\u003eunderstanding and a more true democracy.” Yet from 1975 to 1978, \u003cem\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/em\u003e was banned in schools\u003cbr\u003ethroughout the United States for “obscenity” and “instigating hatred between\u003cbr\u003ethe races.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWright’s once controversial, now celebrated autobiography\u003cbr\u003emeasures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate\u003cbr\u003ewill it took to survive as a black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse,\u003cbr\u003eand hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole,\u003cbr\u003eand raged at those around him—whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and blacks resentful\u003cbr\u003eof anyone trying to rise above their circumstances. Desperate for a different\u003cbr\u003eway of life, he may his way north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he\u003cbr\u003eforged a new path and began his career as a writer. At the end of \u003cem\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/em\u003e, Wright sits poised with\u003cbr\u003epencil in hand, determined to “hurl words into this darkness and wait for an\u003cbr\u003eecho.” Seventy-five year later, his words continue to reverberate. “To read \u003cem\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/em\u003e is to stare into the heart of\u003cbr\u003edarkness,” John Edgar Wideman writes in his foreword. “Not the dark heart Conrad\u003cbr\u003esearched for in Congo jungles but the beating heart I bear.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the great American memoirs, Wright’s account is a\u003cbr\u003epoignant record of struggle and endurance—a seminal literary work that\u003cbr\u003eilluminates our own time.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eRichard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi amid poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a \"drunkard,\" hanging about in taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/em\u003e is Richard Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. It is at once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment—a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice and human suffering.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“The publication of this new edition is not just an editorial innovation. It is a major event in American literary history.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAndrew Delbanco, New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A visceral and unforgettable account of a young black man’s coming of age in the American south in the bitter decades before the civil rights movement.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this poignant and disturbing book one of the most gifted of America’s younger writers turns from fiction to tell the story of his own life during the nineteen years he lived in the South.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“One of the most important literary talents of contemporary America.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Superb. . . . A great American writer speaks with his own voice about matters that still resonate at the center of our lives.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889199378661,"sku":"NP9780062421050","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062421050.jpg?v=1730230735","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/black-boy-isbn-9780062421050","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}