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Native Son

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Native Son

by Wright, Richard

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Near Fine /Very Good
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Garrison, New York, United States
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£146.91
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About This Item

New York: Harper and Brothers. DJ in archival cover tiny chips, tape repair toning. Facsimile First Edition reprint. . Near Fine. Hardcover. 1968.

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
J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
009288
Title
Native Son
Author
Wright, Richard
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used - Near Fine
Jacket Condition
Very Good
Quantity Available
1
Publisher
Harper and Brothers
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1968

Terms of Sale

J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints

Payment can be made by credit card, checks made out to J Mercurio Books, or PayPal. Shipment usually occurs within two business days, unless customer requests that we hold or ship on a different day. If a book or set is oversized, we may contact the customer for additional shipping to ensure proper transport.

About the Seller

J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 2 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2019
Garrison, New York
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About J. Mercurio Books, Maps, & Prints

We are a 50 year old, third generation antiquarian bookshop nestled in the bucolic Hudson Highlands of New York's historic Hudson Valley, less than a mile from a transverse of the Appalachian Trail. While we have strong first edition literature and poetry collections, we specialize in New York, history, and Americana. We are a proud member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA).

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Facsimile
An exact copy of an original work. In books, it refers to a copy or reproduction, as accurate as possible, of an original...
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...
Reprint
Any printing of a book which follows the original edition. By definition, a reprint is not a first edition.
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...

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