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Native Son (Novel & Play)
by Richard Wright
- Used
- near fine
- hardcover
- Signed
- First
- Condition
- Near fine/very good +
- Seller
-
Neenah, Wisconsin
Item Price:
£2,900.00
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Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1941. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/very good +. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Copy of Native Son, the novel (1940) and copy of Native Son A Play, the play (1941) are housed together in a custom clamshell box, 1/4" Burgandy leather, flat spine stamped in 22kt gold, boards covered Galen Berry hand marbled paper, trays covered in burgundy buckram and lined tan suede. Native Son book - first issue blue cloth title in red and light blue blocks. 1st issue dust jacket in green and yellow; finger nail sized chip head of spine, chips at extremities, crease front flap, several short closed tears. Signed and dated month/year of publication New York on front free end paper. Native Son play - 2nd issue dust jacket that has the reviews on it. Toning to front paste downs, and half title page, appears to have small water marks on title page with shading from the picture on the adjacent page. 1/4" closed tear rear top panel, 1/2" closed tear top spine and 1" closed tear front panel dust jacket, shelf wear.
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 (Novel & Play)
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Details
- Bookseller
- Lyons Fine Books
(US)
- Bookseller Inventory #
- 6212
- Title
- Native Son (Novel & Play)
- Author
- Richard Wright
- Format/binding
- Hardcover
- Book condition
- Used - Near fine
- Jacket condition
- very good +
- Quantity available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Harper and Brothers
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date published
- 1941
Terms of Sale
Lyons Fine Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Lyons Fine Books
Biblio.co.uk member since: 2015
Neenah, Wisconsin
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About Lyons Fine Books
We have over 12,00 titles of new, used and rare books; collectible First Editions, modern fiction and poetry.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- shelf wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...[more]
- buckram
- A plain weave fabric normally made from cotton or linen which is stiffened with starch or other chemicals to cover the book...[more]
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...[more]
- 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...[more]
- marbled paper
- Decorative colored paper that imitates marble with a veined, mottled, or swirling pattern. Commonly used as the end papers or...[more]
- clamshell box
- A protective box designed for storing and preserving a bound book or loose sheets. A clamshell box is hinged on one side, with...[more]
- jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...[more]
- half title
- The blank front page which appears just prior to the title page, and typically contains only the title of the book, although, at...[more]
- 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....[more]
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