Black Boy (The Restored Text Established by The Library of America) (Perennial Classics)

Book Description

With an introduction by Jerry W. Ward, Jr.

Black Boy is a classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. An enduring story of one young man's coming off age during a particular time and place, Black Boy remains a seminal text in our history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.

"Superb...The Library of America has insured that most of Wright's major texts are now available as he wanted them to be tread...Most important of all is the opportunity we now have to hear a great American writer speak with his own voice about matters that still resonate at the center of our lives."
--Alfred Kazin, New York Time Book Review
"The publication of this new edition is not just an editorial innovation, it is a major event in American literary history."
--Andrew Delbanco, New Republic

Customer Reviews:

wow.......2007-09-29

This is my all time favourite book ever. I'm sure there are literary drawbacks to it somewhere; but overall I think its an amazingly well written book. Poignant, stark, and unfathomable. Reading it made me so hungry, you wouldn't believe.

Not the best edition to have.......2007-09-15

Much as I love and admire this book--a must-read in American literature--this is not the best edition to have. Wright originally wrote the book in two parts: "Southern Night," about his experiences in the South; and "The Horror and the Glory." His original title for the two-part book was AMERICAN HUNGER.

When it was selected as a primary selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club--a great honor at that time, which tripled the sales of the book--he was asked to remove "The Horror and the Glory" and just publish the first section, "Southern Night." That was the book he retitled BLACK BOY. It is a pure memoir of his life as an aspirational but deeply alienated black growing up in the South.

Recent editions of the book have restored "The Horror and the Glory" to the text, and you might think this is a good thing. I don't think it is, in this case. That section purports to continue his memoir with his experiences in Chicago. However, unfortunately--and ironically--the Book of the Month Club editors were right from an artistic standpoint. "The Horror and the Glory" is completely different in tone. It largely recounts Wright's involvement in the Communist Party of the 1930s, and is deeply enmeshed in party politics. It embodies Wright's own feelings of devotion to Communism and Communist ideals even as it recounts his repudiation of the party.

I have nothing against Wright having been a Communist per se; my objections are not political at all but purely artistic. This second part of the book has none of the directness and immediacy of the first part; it is far less entertaining, and much more of a chore to read. Actually, the first part of the book (about two-thirds of its length) does indeed stand alone as a cohesive, coherent narrative. This is how it was issued, and, actually, it's how it should be read. The second part merely dilutes the artistic impact of the first part, rather than adding to it.

"The Horror and the Glory" was published originally in a motley of smaller articles, in the Atlantic Monthly and elsewhere. The issues it raises--internal Communist party politics and their relationships to the John Reed Clubs and their associated writers' groups--are somewhat interesting historically, but dated and ultimately irrelevant. It feels very much like commentary on facts and events you're expected to know about, but don't.

I suggest readers either purchase an edition that is true to the first edition, and contains only what in this edition is called "Southern Night," or else consider just reading the first part and letting the second part go. I think it's a better book the way it was originally issued.

Searching for Humanity.......2007-06-26

Richard Wrights autobiographical book is all the more remarkable in so much that it exists and was written by a man born to fail by society and given every hinderence to his thirst and love for life and reading.

Wrights book never becomes mawkish or pious.It simply tells it how it was;deep south society at the turn of the century and the black peoples place in it. Wright is open about his own failings-taunting jews, his childhood alcoholism-but there was no escape for him no matter how hard he tried to get ahead. A painful scene comes when young Wright thinks he is 'getting ahead' by selling newspapers to have a wiser black head point out he is actually selling ku klux klan literature. His love for books is hampered by the law banning blacks from libraries.

He comes across liberals who try to help him, but there is only so much anyone can do in a society swamped by prejudices.

The sad end is when Wright traveled up to the north; Chicago, where 'Blacks are free' The memoir ends here, but further reading of Wrights work-and that of his admirers and contemporaries such as Ralph Ellison-makes you aware that this was just another myth.Yes,life wasn't as oppressive as the south, but the 'liberals' liked the blacks to stay in the 'black belt'(a favourite term of Wrights) and used all means at disposal should they get 'Uppity'.

Wright inspired Ellison and Baldwin amongst others, but I feel sure he must have inspired MLK as well, as all Wright ever really wanted was human dignity for all mankinds peoples.

Read it for the second time!.......2007-04-25

This book is an early years autobiography of Richard Wright, the famed and accomplished African American author. I read all of Mr. Wright's books when I was in junior high school and wanted to share them with my teenage daughter. In doing so, I picked up "Black Boy" and couldn't put it down until I read it again.

Richard Wright was raised in the South in the 1920's. He experienced the hardships, poverty, and racism of those days and relays these experiences descriptively yet simply in the book. The reader can can see and feel the events without being bored.

"Black Boy" is a quick one- or two-day read, and I recommend it highly. I also highly recommend one of Mr. Wright's fictional novels, "Native Son."

Hearing Wright's Life and Our Own.......2007-04-05

Peter Francis James's performance of Richard Wright's autobiography brings many of its aural qualities our ears, qualities we may not notice in a silent reading of the book. These CDs enable both the visually impaired and the sighted to enjoy Wright's classic and to ponder why after sixty-two years the book still provides insights about American culure.

Average customer rating:

Awakening
This is a great book
Good beginning, but really bad ending
Too much fiction in the autobiography
it was an ok book in my view

Black Boy (Cliffs Notes)
Carl Senna
Manufacturer: Cliffs Notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Notes | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books

Study Guides | Reference | Subjects | Books

Literary Criticism & Collections | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Study Guides | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Reference | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Cliffs Notes | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Children's Books | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Reference | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0822002426

Book Description

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background.

CliffsNotes on Black Boy chronicles the alienation of the author – not only from white society, but from his own people. Richard Wright’s novel is a cry of anguish in the face of the human condition and the tragedy that comes when an individual struggles to overcome it.

With this study guide, you’ll experience the events and the unique tone of the novel. Background about the life of the author will help shed light on the novel’s themes. Other features that help you study include

Character analyses of major players
Chapter summaries and commentaries
Critical essays
Character genealogy chart
Helpful maps
Review questions and suggested essay topics

Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

Download Description

Black Boy, an autobiography of the author's boyhood, explores the theory of human behavior determined by environment. Richard Wright's novel is profoundly American by being a distinctly African-American chronicle.

What makes the book unique is its tone, which is that of the blues, both lyrical and ironic, and yet purely tragic.

(Please note: this book does not cover Wright's American Hunger, the 1977 sequel to Black Boy.)

Customer Reviews:

Awakening.......2002-02-26

I believe that Black Boy is a great book. The author was honest and did not try to make himself seem like he was more pure and good in his childhood than he really was. The autobiography was the life story of a lot of young Black boys growing up in the Jim Crow south.

This is a great book.......2000-03-06

When I read this book for the first time in nineth grade, I thought this book was really boring because the author kind of put too many descriptions. But once I understood what the story was about and kind of accept the fact that he included a lot of details, I really liked the book. Infact, I actually liked the descriptions that he wrote. Because of this book, I was motivated to write a twenty page autobiography for my english class. Now I am a senior in high school and I have just decided to read this book all over again, and I find it even more interesting now because I understood it even more. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about the history of African Americans. I hope more high school students will read this book because it is a well-written book. Thank you.

Good beginning, but really bad ending.......2000-03-06

This book has a pretty good beginning and seems to flow really well towards the middle, but the whole other half has barely any point to it. It's a bunch of political stuff which makes it boring. The ending makes me dissappointed also.

Too much fiction in the autobiography.......1999-11-20

I'm a senior in Highschool and as far as forced reading goes in highschool the book is one of the better "School Books" I have read. My major compaint with the book is that when the author is only 6 years old he seems to have to high of an elevated thinking level for his age. He ponders the mysteries of the world and develops complex reasoning. This does not fit a 6 year-old. my second complaint is that he could not have remembered all of his thoughts at age six when he wrote the book much later in life. I am 17 and I can't even remember my thoughts when I was 15. How many of you can honestly remember your "Sophisticated views on the world" when you were six. I believe this book isn't famous for being well written or even an honest biography but rather because of the subject and time it was written on. (This review has been generated on behalf of an extremely bored student waiting for a download to finish)

it was an ok book in my view.......1999-10-20

the book lacked a lot of interest , i read it about a few weeks ago in school , me being a high school junior and thought that the book was very boring and that i should not have to read it , by this time you are probally saying to yourself thats what all kids say , but it is very , very true , i live in a town in the north eastern part of the country were i never experienced the subject of seguration but i really don't care i know that to prevent the past we must read and learn about it but i really honestally don't care what some little kid when threw as a kid, i do not view myself as a racist person but i feel that i don;t need to lear about it , thank you for takeing the time to read my review and i was grateful to write one for you Thanks you

Average customer rating:

Black Boy
Richard Wright
Manufacturer: Harper & Bros
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000E8DDB6

Understanding Richard Wright's Black Boy: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series)

Average customer rating:

Understanding Richard Wright's Black Boy: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series)
Robert Felgar
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Book Notes | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Biographies & Memoirs | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

History | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Reference | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Black Boy: (American Hunger) (Perennial Classics)

ASIN: 0313302219

Book Description

In Black Boy, Richard Wright triumphs over an ugly, racist world by fashioning an inspiring, powerful, beautiful, and fictionalized autobiography. To help students understand and appreciate his story in the cultural, political, racial, social, and literary contexts of its time, this casebook provides a rich source of primary historical documents, collateral readings, and commentary. The selection of unique documents is designed to place in sharp relief the issue of pervasive racism in American society. Documents include excerpts from other autobiographies and a novel, legal documents, speeches, an interview, an anthropological study, magazine and newspaper articles, and contemporary editorials. Most of the documents are available in no other printed form. From Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois on the one hand, to Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and white supremacist pronouncements on the other, Felgar creates a dialogue between the voices of oppressed blacks, including Richard Wright, and those of oppressing whites over the issue of race and racism. Students will be able to analyze a variety of perspectives on this issue from the earliest days of the American republic to the present day. Felgar also includes primary documents on the American dream of success, which has remained elusive for so many blacks. A chapter on the American autobiographical tradition uses excerpts from Ben Franklin's autobiography, as well as from those by Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois, to place Wright squarely in the tradition of this genre and show that Wright was more a believer in the myth of perpetual upward mobility than he realized. In a chapter called "The Dream Deferred," documents show how freed blacks were just as enslaved by new and restrictive laws after the Civil War as they had been under slavery. Each chapter concludes with study questions, ideas for written and oral examination, and suggested readings to aid students in examining the issues raised by Wright's autobiography.

Richard Wright : Later Works: Black Boy [American Hunger], The Outsider (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

Part II of an ESSENTIAL collection

Richard Wright : Later Works: Black Boy [American Hunger], The Outsider (Library of America)
Richard Wright
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0940450674

Customer Reviews:

Part II of an ESSENTIAL collection.......2001-06-22

Black Boy (American Hunger) serves as a the real life basis for the novels in the first volume of this collection. It relates Wright's experiences growing up in the south and gradually moving north, ultimately to Chicago. It's fascinating and completely believable and really points out the absurdities of racism and Jim Crow-ism, as well as the coldness of the northerners. The Outsider is a departure from much of Wright's other work. While about a black character, it is essentially a musing on the intellectual and physical power one has, and their ability to wield it undetected, as long as they fit into another's stereotypes. It is quite different and doesn't focus on cruelly racist treatment. It is one of the few times in which the protagonist is comfortable and confident in his surroundings. Black Boy (American Hunger) is one of the best autobiographies ever and The Outsider is a clever story with some brilliant twists on Wright's traditional and more well-known works.

Average customer rating:

Native Son / Black Boy
Richard Wright
Manufacturer: Quality Paperback Book Club
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSO44O

Product Description

8.2"* 5.4". Native Son has 392 p. Black Boy has 285 p.

Readings on Black Boy (Literary Companion Series)

Average customer rating:

Readings on Black Boy (Literary Companion Series)

Manufacturer: Greenhaven Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Literary Criticism & Collections | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Richard Wright's Black Boy (American Hunger): A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism)

Average customer rating:

Richard Wright's Black Boy (American Hunger): A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This casebook gathers together the most important critical responses to Richard Wright's autobiography. It includes a 1945 interview with Richard Wright, contemporary reviews of Black Boy written by W.E.B. Du Bois, Lionel Trilling, Mary McCarthy, and Ralph Ellison, and eight critical essays. These essays address a range of topics including the circumstances of the book's original publication in 1945; the relationship between the novel and Wright's actual biography; the African-American autobiographical tradition; the influences of various writers and literary movements on Black Boy; and the impact of African-American vernacular and oral performance on Wright's autobiography.

Average customer rating:

Spark Notes Black Boy
Richard Wright , and SparkNotes Editors
Manufacturer: SparkNotes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Notes | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Test Prep Central | Reference | Subjects | Books

Test Prep Central | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 158663397X

Book Description

Get your "A" in gear!

They're today's most popular study guides-with everything you need to succeed in school. Written by Harvard students for students, since its inception SparkNotes™ has developed a loyal community of dedicated users and become a major education brand. Consumer demand has been so strong that the guides have expanded to over 150 titles. SparkNotes'™ motto is Smarter, Better, Faster because:

· They feature the most current ideas and themes, written by experts.
· They're easier to understand, because the same people who use them have also written them.
· The clear writing style and edited content enables students to read through the material quickly, saving valuable time.

And with everything covered--context; plot overview; character lists; themes, motifs, and symbols; summary and analysis, key facts; study questions and essay topics; and reviews and resources--you don't have to go anywhere else!

Napoleon/Ludwig von Beethoven/The Eleanor Roosevelt Story/Black Boy/Elizabeth and Her German Garden (Reader's Digest Family Treasury of Great Biographies, Volume 4)

Average customer rating:

Napoleon/Ludwig von Beethoven/The Eleanor Roosevelt Story/Black Boy/Elizabeth and Her German Garden (Reader's Digest Family Treasury of Great Biographies, Volume 4)
Emil Ludwig , Alan Pryce-Jones , Archibald MacLeish , Richard Wright , and Countess Elizabeth von Arnim Russell
Manufacturer: Reader's Digest Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books