Native Son by Richard Wright - 1940

USA: Constable & Co. Limited, 1940. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7� - 9�" tall. 1st Printing 1 Copyright Date 1940, First Edition, Light Blue Cloth Over Boards With Guilt Lettering And Design On The Spine. Some Light Wear To The Spine Area, Previous Owners Name Written On The Inside Front Flyleaf. Top Page Edges Gilt . For Edge Pages Are Deckled. Dust Jacket, Latter Edition. One Chips Out Of The Spine Approximately In The Middle Small Chips To The Toe Has Been Price Clipped. Now Housed In A Clear Cover. This 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. 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.