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Native Son

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Native Son

by Wright, Richard

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
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About This Item

New York: Harper & Bros, 1940. First Edition ~1st Printing. Hardcover. very good in professional reproduction dust jacket, in fresh mylar cover; gentle rubbing/bumping to board edges, minor abrasions to topstain, mild rubbing to title on cloth spine else a tight square unmarked copy in mint reproduced jacket; stated first edition with A-P

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
David Kaye Books & Memorabilia US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
26712
Title
Native Son
Author
Wright, Richard
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used
Edition
First Edition ~1st Printing
Publisher
Harper & Bros
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1940

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David Kaye Books & Memorabilia

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About the Seller

David Kaye Books & Memorabilia

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2005
Woodland Hills, California
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About David Kaye Books & Memorabilia

In addition to our internet business, we operate a retail store specializing in rare and collectible books of all genres plus entertainment memorabilia, including original movie posters, celebrity autographs, press kits, programs, scripts, etc. Please phone or email at any time with questions or special requests.

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...
Cloth
"Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
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....
Rubbing
Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
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...
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...
Tight
Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.

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