NATIVE SON
by Wright, Richard
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Collectible-Fair/No Jacket
- Seller
-
Oneonta, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940. Dark gray cover with black & gold lettering & decorations on spine. Wear around edges and corners, lettering on spine is rubbed and very faded. Binding is tight. A-P Harpers mark on copyright page, 1940 on title page is in red.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Collectible-Fair/No Jacket.
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
- Popeks Books, IOBA
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- a182
- Title
- NATIVE SON
- Author
- Wright, Richard
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Collectible-Fair
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Harper & Brothers
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1940
- Keywords
- FICTION AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE BLACK
Terms of Sale
Popeks Books, IOBA
30 day return policy. If you have any problems with your order, please contact us. We will do what it takes to make it right.
About the Seller
Popeks Books, IOBA
Biblio member since 2003
Oneonta, New York
About Popeks Books, IOBA
Store located at 356 Main Street in Otego, NY
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Copyright page
- The page in a book that describes the lineage of that book, typically including the book's author, publisher, date of...
- 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...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
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