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The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man: With an Introduction by Henry Louis
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The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man: With an Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Paperback - 1989

by James Weldon Johnson


From the publisher

First published anonymously in 1912, this resolutely unsentimental novel gave many white readers their first glimpse of the double standard -- and double consciousness -- that ruled the lives of black people in modern America. Republished in 1927, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man became a groundbreaking document of Afro-American culture; the first first-person novel ever written by a black, it became an eloquent model for later novelists ranging from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. Narrated by a man whose light skin enables him to "pass" for white, the novel describes a journey through the strata of black society at the turn of the century -- from a cigar factory in Jacksonville to an elite gambling club in New York, from genteel aristocrats to the musicians who hammered out the rhythms of ragtime. The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man is a complex and moving examination of the question of race and an unsparing look at what it meant to forge an identity as a man in a culture that recognized nothing but color.

From the jacket flap

First published anonymously in 1912, this resolutely unsentimental novel gave many white readers their first glimpse of the double standard -- and double consciousness -- that ruled the lives of black people in modern America. Republished in 1927, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man became a groundbreaking document of Afro-American culture; the first first-person novel ever written by a black, it became an eloquent model for later novelists ranging from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.
Narrated by a man whose light skin enables him to "pass" for white, the novel describes a journey through the strata of black society at the turn of the century -- from a cigar factory in Jacksonville to an elite gambling club in New York, from genteel aristocrats to the musicians who hammered out the rhythms of ragtime. The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man is a complex and moving examination of the question of race and an unsparing look at what it meant to forge an identity as a man in a culture that recognized nothing but color.

Details

  • Title The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man: With an Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
  • Author James Weldon Johnson
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: Repri
  • Pages 256
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Vintage, New York
  • Date 1989-12-17
  • ISBN 9780679727538 / 0679727531
  • Weight 0.58 lbs (0.26 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.98 x 5.26 x 0.68 in (20.27 x 13.36 x 1.73 cm)
  • Reading level 1100
  • Themes
    • Ethnic Orientation: African American
  • Library of Congress subjects African American men
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 89040439
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

Citations

  • Booklist, 02/01/1992, Page 991

About the author

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)--novelist, poet, lawyer, editor, ethnomusicologist--was also the coauthor (with his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson) of the hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing," widely accepted as the "Negro National Anthem."
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The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man: With an Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man: With an Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr

by Johnson, James Weldon

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by Johnson, James Weldon

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by Johnson, James Weldon

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by Johnson, James Weldon

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The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man: With an Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr

by Johnson, James Weldon

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The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man : With an Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr
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The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man : With an Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr

by Johnson, James Weldon

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by Johnson, James Weldon

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The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man : With an Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr

by James Weldon Johnson

  • Used
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  • Paperback
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Used - Very Good
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Paperback
ISBN 13
9780679727538
ISBN 10
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