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Native Son
by Wright, Richard
- Used
- fair
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fair/No Jacket
- Seller
-
La Mesa, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York, New York, U.S.A.: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1940. First Edition Later Printing . Hardcover. Fair/No Jacket. No American Negro exists
Synopsis
Richard Wright’s Native Son tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black American youth living in utter poverty in Chicago's South Side during the 1930s. When Bigger unintentionally murders a white woman, he is put on trial and eventually convicted, and sentenced to the electric chair. Often recognized as a protest novel, Native Son stresses systemic racial issues, prompting the reader to feel both sympathy and empathy for Bigger. In this, the novel is one of the earliest successful attempts to explain the racial divide in America in terms of the conditions imposed on African-Americans by the dominant white society. Soon after publication, Native Son was selected by the Book of the Month Club as its first book by an African-American author. Indeed, the novel was an immediate best seller, selling 250,000 hardcover copies within three weeks of its publication. As a result of the novel’s success, Wright became the first bestselling and the wealthiest black writer of his time, establishing him as a spokesperson for African-American issues and, to many, the “father of Black American literature.” In 1941, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded Wright awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal. Unsurprisingly, Native Son was challenged in many public schools and libraries and is listed in the American Library Association's list of the “Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999.” Yet most institutions in which the novel was challenged successfully fought to keep Wright's work accessible, particularly in the classroom, defending it as a guide into the reality of the complex adult and social world. Native son is listed as 20th on the Modern Library’s list of the “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. It is also included in TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923).
Read More: Identifying first editions of Native Son
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Details
- Bookseller
- Gargoyle Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 016473
- Title
- Native Son
- Author
- Wright, Richard
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fair
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition Later Printing
- Publisher
- Harper & Brothers Publishers
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.S.A.
- Date Published
- 1940
- Keywords
- RACE RACISM RACIST CRIMINAL JUSTICE MURDER BLACKS WHITES AFRICAN AMERICAN CHICAGO ILLINOIS FICTION CRIME
Terms of Sale
Gargoyle Books
All books shipped promptly that day or next; tracking # provided on all orders. Refunds issued gladly in accordance with Biblio policies.
About the Seller
Gargoyle Books
Biblio member since 2006
La Mesa, California
About Gargoyle Books
On-line booksellers since 1996
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
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