Native Son.
by Wright, Richard
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
San Francisco, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
8vo. New York & London: Harper and Brothers Publisher's, 1940. 8vo, xi, 359 pp. Ttitle-page printed in red and black. Original dark blue cloth with lettering in red, price-clipped jacket with moderate wear and chipping and some old tape repairs, protected by mylar. § First edition, first printing with publisher's A-P code on the copyright page; first state dust-jacket with no blurb on the spine. A milestone in 20th century literature. As Irving Howe wrote in his 1963 essay "Black Boys and Native Sons": "The day Native Son appeared, American culture was changed forever. No matter how much qualifying the book might later need, it made impossible a repetition of the old lies ... [and] brought out into the open, as no one ever had before, the hatred, fear, and violence that have crippled and may yet destroy our culture." Over 250,000 copies were sold in the first few weeks; the first issue (as here) is very scarce in any condition. Blockson 76: "Native Son ranks with such American novels as An American Tragedy [Dreiser] and The Grapes of Wrath [Steinbeck].
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
- John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 125554
- Title
- Native Son.
- Author
- Wright, Richard
- Book Condition
- Used
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Harper and Brothers Publisher's
- Place of Publication
- New York & London
- Date Published
- 1940
- Size
- 8vo
Terms of Sale
John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller
5 day return guarantee, with full refund not including shipping costs for up to 5 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller
Biblio member since 2005
San Francisco, California
About John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller
John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller offers an exceptional selection of rare books and manuscripts from medieval times through the twentieth century; we specialize in illustrated material, particularly the work of William Blake and his circle. Located in downtown San Francisco, we have served an international clientele of private collectors, libraries, and institutions for 35 years. We are actively purchasing books and manuscripts in all fields, especially medieval illuminated and text manuscripts; material on California, Hawaii, and Pacific voyages; illustrated books and fine bindings from the 15th through the 20th century; and fine press printing. William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas Frognall Dibdin remain special interests. We are members of the ABAA, ILAB, and PBFA, and we subscribe to the code of ethics endorsed by reputable antiquarian booksellers worldwide.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First State
- used in book collecting to refer to a book from the earliest run of a first edition, generally distinguished by a change in some...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- 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....
- 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...
- Chipping
- A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Blurb
- The blurb refers to the commentary that appears on the dust jacket flaps or the rear of the dustjacket. In the case of a...
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