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Native Son
by Richard Wright
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- Seller
-
Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Harper and Brothers Publishing, 1940. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Wright's classic story of life in the "most segregated city in America" Chicago, in the early 20th century. Book has gray cover and in very good + condition, except for the black and gold printing on spine only which is rubbed and missing 3 letters, spine ends are bumped, but corners are straight and pointed. Book had a label , possibly an ex-libris or library label removed from front paste-down, else VG+. jacket is in VG condition and is price clipped.Spine ends and rear fold are chipped. Saying all that it is a quite nice collectible. First edition with A-P under First edition.
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
- Oshtemo Book Sellers
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 000677
- Title
- Native Son
- Author
- Richard Wright
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- Publisher
- Harper and Brothers Publishing
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1940
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- First edition stated.
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall
Terms of Sale
Oshtemo Book Sellers
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
Oshtemo Book Sellers
Biblio member since 2017
Kalamazoo, Michigan
About Oshtemo Book Sellers
Rare finds with an emphasis on fiction, art, and signed first-editions. Oshtemo Book Sellers has an eye for quality and quirk.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Price Clipped
- When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...
- VG
- Very Good condition can describe a used book that does show some small signs of wear - but no tears - on either binding or...
- Paste-down
- The paste-down is the portion of the endpaper that is glued to the inner boards of a hardback book. The paste-down forms an...
- 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...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Frequently asked questions
This Book’s Categories
What is a first edition?
Even if you’re only peripherally aware of book collecting, you’ve doubtless heard the term, first edition, bandied about but you may still be in the dark as to what makes them such a big deal. Learn about first editions and why collectors value them here.
